Blossoming of a Rose
by Emerald Twin Blade
Summary: 6 years after Battle Frontier, there's a new kind of Pokemon Contest. You just KNOW that Harley and Drew are gonna pop up, but will May be able to win the contest? Wait, she didn't understand one of the requirements! DrewxMay, BrendanxMay.
1. 01: Birth of Hope

**Blossoming of a Rose**

_**Pokémon : Hoenn Contest Ties**_

Written by Emerald Twin Blade

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**Disclaimer:** Emerald Twin Blade does **_NOT_** own Pokémon. If she did, you should know by now that she would have had May be less dense and point out that Drew liked her and then Drew would've admitted it and they'd be together. XP! Since this hasn't happened, it means that she will _never_ own Pokémon. So, BLAH!

**Author's Notes:**

Aahaahaa! I started another fic! XD! I'm sorry, but Contestshipping is the most adorable thing and I've been planning on writing one for two years. I finally decided, "JUST DO IT ALREADY!" So... yeah. Anyway, thanks to a friend of mine who told me my writing style confuses her, I'm gonna put a little Key before every chapter. So, if anyone else has the same problem, it can clear it up.

**Key:**

" " Dialogue (Duh)

**_Pokémon Dialogue_**

_Thoughts_ (Sometimes emphasis, but you should be able to tell the difference.)

**Onomatopoeia**

Now, onward, Readers! Taahaa!

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**: Fragment No. 01 :**

_**Birth of Hope**_

_**Beau, Beautifly! Beau, Beautifly!!**_

"Aagh… Just five more minutes, Mom…"

_**Bulba! Bulbasaur!!**_

"Mmm… sleepy, sleepy…"

_**Squirtle, squirt--! TLLLLLE!**_

"AAAAH!!!!"

The 16-year-old Pokémon Coordinator screamed as she suddenly jumped out of her sleeping bag; both herself and the said-bag were soaking wet. She'd blink, turning her head to see her Beautifly and Bulbasaur hiding behind an amused Blaziken and a laughing Squirtle. She pouted at the four Pokémon.

"What was that for, Squirtle? What'd I ever do to you, huh?"

The tiny turtle Pokémon's laughter came to an immediate halt as it looked down at the ground, feeling ashamed of itself, _**Squirtle, Squirt…**_

May found that she couldn't keep an angry feeling toward the cute little Squirtle and sighed, smiling brightly as she bent down and petted it fondly on the head.

"It's alright… Just don't do it again, okay?"

_**Squirtle!**_ The Pokémon replied with a cheerful nod.

"Now, then! Let's see what I can cook up for food!" she exclaimed with determination, getting up and going over to the campfire she'd made last night and looking through her backpack for what she'd need.

It'd actually been only a little over a week since she left Ash and the others. Brock had to go back to Pewter City to take care of his family and the Gym, and Ash and Max were probably off together on the road to some Pokémon League.

Whereas, here May was, on her way back to Petalburg City to get ready for a big Pokémon Contest that was going to be held there. The only problem was that Petalburg didn't _have_ a Contest Hall, so she was wondering what was going on. Currently, she was camped out on Route 102. It had already been around 12:30 AM when she finally decided to stop and set up camp, so she didn't have enough time to reach her hometown beforehand.

It would probably be around an hour or two's walk till she finally reached Petalburg City and was able to rest up at home and get down to some real training for the contest.

As she thought about the contests she'd entered in the past, she smiled and blushed lightly at the fond memories she had of her rival, Drew. Even though whenever they saw each other all he did was tease her, she couldn't help but feel a sense of longing to see him again. She'd do just about _anything_ to see him again…

Sighing dreamily, her nose began to twitch as a foreign smell entered her nostrils.

_**Beau! Beautifly, Beau!**_ Her Beautifly said frantically, blowing a strong-yet-soft Gust at the now-burning stew that its Master had been working on.

This snapped May back to reality, causing her to panic and let out an alarmed yell as she desperately tried to put out the fire. Blowing on it with her breath or Beautifly's Gusts was not helping in the least! Looking to Squirtle, she pointed to the flaming pot and commanded,

"Water Gun!!"

_**Squir-TLLLLE!!**_ Squirtle exclaimed, letting loose a powerful blast of water from its mouth.

The good news was that the fire was easily put out. The bad news, however, was that not only was the cooking fire out as well, but the stew was ruined by the excess water added to it. May sighed; another breakfast down the drain…

Dumping it all on the ground, she pulled out a can of Pokémon food and smiled at her Pokémon, "At least you guys get to eat, right?"

Her four Pokémon approached her excitedly, hungrily munching on the food she gave to them. She didn't dare bring her Snorlax around with her anymore… It'd probably eat everything up! So, she left it with her father Norman at the Petalburg Gym.

As she watched her only companions chow down, she pulled out a Lava Cookie from her bag. Wherever she went, she made sure to have a good amount of Lava Cookies to last her until she reached a town or two. Her short-attention span often caused her to ruin many a breakfast, lunch and dinner.

"Oh well…" she began, making her chattering Pokémon go silent and listen to what she was going to say, "With my luck, I probably won't run into Drew any time soon, huh? I know it's kinda weird and all, but… I really do miss him…"

She smiled sadly, watching her half-eaten cookie for a moment before looking to her Pokémon. They were all looking at her with sympathetic looks; they already knew about her growing crush on the other Coordinator. May laughed, shaking her head and going back into her cheery mood.

"What're we doing just sitting here? C'mon, hurry and finish eating so we can head back home!"

All her Pokémon agreed, eating faster than even a Snorlax could ever think possible.

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"Hmm… I wonder if May or Max finally got up some strength to send us a letter…" the wife of a certain Petalburg Gym Leader mumbled as she walked out of the house to approach the mailbox.

Opening it up, she pulled out a two envelopes: one addressed to herself and her husband and the other addressed to… May? She blinked her bright eyes, opening the one for her and her husband's eyes-only. –It was from Max!

_Dear Mom and Dad,_

_It's great to finally be a Pokémon trainer! Ash is teaching me all these awesome strategies and moves for battles, so I'm doing just fine! Brock left a while back to go back to Pewter City, and strangely, May left, too. She said that she wanted to go back home because she heard about a Pokémon Contest being held there. So, keep a look out for her, okay?_

_I'll call you guys as soon as we get to the next town!_

_Love, Max_

She blinked, having finished reading her son's letter. May left… was coming home… A wide smile spread on her face as she began to realize what this meant.

"MY BABY'S COMING HOME!!" she exclaimed happily, jumping up and down.

"_Who_ is this 'baby' you're talking about?" a voice asked from behind her.

The woman turned around to see her daughter standing there with one hand on her hip and a grin on her face, "Hey, Mom… I'm home."

May's mother ran to her child, throwing her arms around the teen and hugging her tightly. She hadn't seen her in _ages_!

"Oh my gosh! Welcome home, Sweetheart! Welcome home!"

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May would listen as her mother went on rambling about how things have been without her and her brother, how her father seemed to be undefeated since Ash left the last time around, and how strange things have been going on in the Petalburg Woods.

The strange happenings caught her interest, even though she was now eating something her mother had cooked. _Boy_, did she miss her mom's home cooking!

"Lots of construction workers have been coming in and out of the woods to pick up supplies as if they were going to construct a huge building! You'd think that Rustboro City had run out of supplies over there and they were coming over here to get everything now, but I don't think that's the case."

The Pokémon Coordinator stared at her stack of pancakes for a moment in thought; what could be going on? Wait… could this have something to do with the non-existent Contest Hall that was going to hold the huge Pokémon Contest?

"Oh, yeah!" her mom interrupted her thoughts, "This came for you in the mail today."

May took the letter that was handed to her and stared at the seal on the back. A gasp escaped her; it was the Pokémon Contest Seal! Opening it up, she pulled out the paper inside and read what it said:

_Dear May,_

_We have been keeping track of your victories and losses in the Pokémon Contests up until now. You have done very well, winning as many ribbons as you could. We would like to cordially invite you to join the **Extreme Pokémon Contest** to be held just outside of Petalburg City._

_I am sure that you are wondering about what could make this particular contest so **extreme**. This contest will be done in a bit of a different manner than the previous ones you may have entered in the past. Everything will be thoroughly explained on the 15th of March, so please come to Route 104 on that date._

_We will look forward to seeing you and your Pokémon shine in the upcoming contest, as well as your partner's._

_Sincerely, Mr. Contesta_

The brown-haired girl stared at the _"as well as your partner's"_ part of the letter. Just what did _that_ mean? She didn't have time to think about it before her mother cried out from behind her.

"Oh, Honey! You're going to another contest! And this time, I'll be able to see it _live_! I'm so proud of you, May!"

The teen smiled brightly, putting the letter down and getting up, "Today's the 9th, so that only gives me about six days to get ready! Sorry that we can't sit and catch up any longer, Mom, but I've got to get a routine together!"

"Oh, I understand! Just do your very best and you'll be fine."

She nodded, "Thanks, Mom."

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_**ARRROOOOOW!**_ A Poochyena howled in the distance, probably calling for its family… or a mate.

May sighed, sitting at her open window and staring out at the starry night sky. Petalburg City was usually so bright with lights that you couldn't see any of the stars, but tonight must have been different for some reason.

She smiled, staring up at the crescent moon shining down on her. Today had been a nice day… She'd gotten home in one piece, was able to eat something that wasn't burnt or cookie-related, and was able to train her Pokémon for a few hours.

One thing kept coming into her mind all day, though… Well, not much a thing as it was a _person_. Yes, her favorite rival _Drew_ had kept drifting into her head over and over again… at the most random moments, too! She knew she had a crush on him, but _damn_! Why was she continually thinking about him?

Maybe it was… _more_ than just a crush? She blushed lightly; was she in love with him? She hadn't even seen him in the longest time! How could she feel this way? It was then that an old saying came to her mind: _Being separated can sometimes cause the Heart to grow fonder_.

She smiled at that thought, but then noticed a shooting star flying across the sky. Her smile grew brighter and more excited as she clasped her hands together and closed her eyes, visualizing the shooting star as she whispered the _'magic words.'_

"Star light, Star bright. I wish I may, I wish I might. Please, grant the wish I wish tonight!"

She bit her lip, her eyes closing tighter as she concentrated on visualizing her wish… An image of her object of obsession appeared before her shut eyelids. Her cheeks reddened softly as she relaxed and thought her wish.

'_I wish that I could see Drew again… If I will see him again soon, please! Please, give me a sign!'_

May opened her eyes, just in time to see the shooting star disappear from sight. She smiled weakly; ever since she was little, she made wishes like this… but none of them ever came true.

Could she have jinxed her chances of seeing him again? Her light blue eyes looked down at the garden beneath her window with a downcast look in them, but she was instantly surprised.

A bright red rose was seemingly growing out of the ground; it was but a rose bud, but she knew what it was. She blinked at it; that hadn't been there before… A smile curled itself onto her lips; this was the sign! The answer to her wish!

She got up and pulled the window closed, going over to her bed and lying down beneath the covers. She smiled even now, staring up at her dim ceiling.

"I'm going to see him again… I _know_ I will!" she whispered before falling fast asleep.


	2. 02: Rendezvous

**Disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade does **_NOT_** own Pokémon. You should know by now, Gosh! XP

**Author's Notes:** Would any of you consider this a close update? I would... I was planning on holding out longer so I could get my friend to review, but I doubt he will. Oh well, you people are good reason enough to post it early! And before anybody asks, I'll say it now. I treat this fic the same way I used to treat my **Black Velvet** fic. I write several chapters and after a certain amount of chapters is written after the anticipated one or after I get my desired amount of reviews, I'll post the next chapter. XD! I'm sorry, it's just so I don't have to be rushed in writing. LoL!

**Review Reply:** Apparently, somebody needs things to be explained to thoroughly... Yes, Squirtle and Bulbasaur _would_ be at their final stages, NeiNei-chan, but I think May would be like Ash and keep them at their first evolutions. As for the age thing, I'm just going along from what I got out of the show. I think she was 10 in the Hoenn/Battle Frontier episodes, and I'm fine with your opinion of her being older... that's what you got out of it, but, of course, this isn't your fic. I'm writing this off of what I got out of it. And the height: some people are taller than others, despite age. At my school, the majority of my underclassman are taller than me, and I'm about to graduate. T.T All you've accomplished in doing is making me feel bad about my height... like everybody else! XP Now, from what I can tell in your review, yes, Drew and May _would_ be in their twenties, but from what I got from the show and what I'm writing, May is 16 and Drew would be closer to 17.

That's probably the closest I'll get to clearing this up, because I'm limited here online. My parents will be home any minute, and I'm not supposed to be online this early. _-It's 9:08 AM-_ I'm usually allowed online after 12 PM only, so... Yeah. XP

**Key:**

" " dialogue (duh)

**_Pokémon Dialogue_**

_Thoughts_ (Or emphasis... You should be able to tell the difference.)

**Onamatopoeia**

Now, on with the next chapter! X3

**

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**

**: Fragment No. 02 :**

_**Rendezvous** _

**BANG! BANG!! BANG!!!**

May growled under her breath, trying to cling to her peaceful unconsciousness; but alas, the banging coming from outside would not allow her to. Sitting straight up in bed, she turned her head to the window, having pinpointed the location of the noise. She pushed herself up out of her bed and over to the window, shoving it open and shouting outside.

"KEEP IT DOWN, WILL YA?! Some people are trying to sleep!!"

"Hmm! Calm down, Hon! You don't have to yell…" a familiar voice spoke.

She blinked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes to get rid of the blurriness. There, standing on the pathway with a hammer in hand, was her rival, _Harley_.

Immediately, she jumped and stared with an alarmed look, "What the hell're you doing _here_, Harley!?"

The older male who _still_ dressed like a Cacturne, even after all these years, approached her window and smirked up at her, "The contest, of course! I set out for Petalburg City the moment I got the invitation! But…" he paused, pointing at the girl, "I never would have thought I'd bump into you so soon! Especially in such a… _revealing_ outfit."

May tilted her head to the side, wondering what he was going on about. Looking down at her outfit, she just realized that she'd gone to bed wearing nothing but a white bra, white panties, and a transparent light red gown. She blushed, her hands darting to cover herself up.

"Ack!! Harley, you always pop up at the worst of times!!" she said embarrassedly, pulling the curtains around her window inward to shield herself.

"Oh, _May_-dear! I truly think that you should be saving yourself for your little boyfriend!" Harley laughed, curling a few strands of purple hair around his finger.

"Puh-lease, I don't even think that Drew's going to come…" It took her a moment to realize what she'd just answered to. She blushed brightly again, "—W-wait a minute! He's not my boyfriend!! And if I didn't even want to show myself to you, why would I want to show myself to him!? You two are supposed to be my rivals!"

The green-clad Coordinator made a fake hurt look, "You still think of us as rivals? Oh, I would've thought we'd grown closer after six years!"

"Yeah, six years of trying to avoid your sad attempts to get rid of me!" she snapped back, her head poking out from between the curtains, "Now, if you'll excuse me! I have stuff to do!"

"What kind of stuff? You getting ready to welcome your dear little boy-toy into your lovely little house?"

A pokéball-shaped clock was thrown out the window at him, smacking him in the forehead and causing him to fall backwards from the strength of the hit. He pulled the clock off his face and looked at it; it read **7:15 AM**.

"WHY WERE YOU MAKING SO MUCH NOISE SO EARLY IN THE MORNING!?" she shouted before slamming her window closed and pulling the curtains to conceal her activities in her room.

Harley merely chuckled; this was certainly going to be interesting…

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May sighed as she exited her bedroom; there was no way that she was going to be able to go back to sleep after that little run-in with Harley. She was dressed in her trademark red-and-blue outfit, but she'd long since grown in both body _and_ style.

She was wearing her usual red medium-sleeved jacket, but it was left open to show her short dark blue spaghetti-strap top. It exposed her stomach, showing exactly how skinny she was, even though she stuffed herself _silly_ the night before in an attempt to make up for all the meals she'd lost on the road. And lastly, she wore her usual white skirt-over-dark blue shorts and her pale dandelion-colored waist pack.

Looking around the kitchen, she blinked as she found it empty of human beings. Her parents must've still been asleep… A small smile came to her as she just grabbed a few Lava Cookies and wrapped them into a little package out of a napkin, placing it into her pack. She'd then snatch her red pokéball-print bandana and tie it around her head before sneaking out of the house in favor of a good spot to train her Pokémon.

And she knew the perfect place to do just that! The Coordinator went out behind the Petalburg Gym to the top of a few nice and grassy hills. When she was just a little girl, she'd always come back here and play… or just to be alone. Lately, she'd found herself wanting to be alone more and more. Most of the time, she wound up thinking about a certain green-haired Coordinator who'd stolen her heart… approximately six years ago! This fact frightened her; how could she still care so much for him? She hadn't seen him since the Johto Grand Festival, for Heaven's sake!

May shook her head, taking out a pokéball and tossing it into the air, "Beautifly!"

**_Beautifly!_** The Butterfly Pokémon trilled, flapping its wings and sending out sparkles upon appearing from the white glow of being released. It floated over to May's head and sat itself on top of her bandana, letting out another trill that sounded like laughter.

"Hey, hey! C'mon, Beautifly! We need to practice!" she explained, grinning, "If we're going to win this contest, then we're going to need it! It's been a while since out last contest, don't y'think?"

**_Beau…_** Beautifly agreed, getting off of its trainer's head and floating along in front of her in a ready position, **_Beau!_**

"Here we go, then!" May pulled out two dandelion-yellow disks and tossed them out into the air, "Use String Shot!"

The Bug-type Pokémon shot out a thick string from its mouth, wrapping the two disks completely with it and literally tying them together. They soon began to descend toward the ground.

"Alright! Now, use Gust!"

Beautifly flapped its wings gracefully, a strong yet soft wind picking up and lifting the double disks into the air, both spinning around together in wild circles.

"Change to Silver Wind!"

It proceeded to blowing the wind a bit harder and letting bright silver waves float on the air currents. The small tornado that Gust had created was filled with sparkles now, and the disks continued to spin at its core.

"Now, finish it up with Flash!"

Beautifly let out a cry as it flew to the top of the tornado and aimed its attack down into it. A brilliant **_FLASH_** occurred, somehow becoming trapped inside of the tornado. It continued to flash, over and over, until the disks shattered on the inside and faded into sparkles. The twister suddenly broke with one last Flash, and the sparkles were raining all around them.

May smiled brightly, "Awesome! You're definitely getting better, Beautifly! At this rate, we're going to win this contest, just like the rest!"

The trainer's confidence got the Butterfly Pokémon excited, causing it to fly upwards into the sky, chirping and spinning happily at the praise it'd just received. The Coordinator laughed at her Beautifly's enthusiasm, taking out two more pokéballs and releasing the Pokémon inside. Out came her Bulbasaur and her Blaziken.

"Alright! We need to work on some battle routines! There are bound to be plenty of tough Pokémon who can do well in the appeals, and then _better_ in the battles. After we're done, we can go grab some breakfast. You okay with this?"

The two Pokémon agreed; all that was left to do was get Beautifly back down. May looked up to her main contest Pokémon, waving for it to come down, "C'mon, Beautifly! Come back!"

Beautifly began descending to the ground, when suddenly; a Murkrow flew over to it from the woods around them and started pecking at it. **_Beau! Beau!!_** It chirped helplessly. The Dark Bird Pokémon kept moving, so Beautifly couldn't aim a good attack without missing and being caught off-guard.

"Oh no!" May gasped, looking to her Bulbasaur immediately, "Bulbasaur! Use Vine Whip to toss yourself up there and then use Razor Leaf!"

**_Bulba!_** Called Bulbasaur, letting two vines come out from behind the bulb on its back and putting them to the ground. It crouched for a moment to build up strength, and then vines pushed it off the ground toward the one-sided fight in the air. Green leaves had only just begun to escape its bulb when Murkrow's wing began to glow. When the Grass-type was close enough, Murkrow easily slapped it back down to the ground with Steel Wing.

**_Saur!!_** It cried, flipping in midair and landing on its feet as it hit the ground. May looked around at her Pokémon, trying to come up with a quick plan. It was then that she got one, coming up with a combination battle strategy that should **'wow'** any judge!

"Hah! I've got an idea!" she turned to her very first Pokémon; a serious look was on her face, "Blaziken, I need you to use Sunny Day."

The Fire-type nodded, raising its arms up toward the sky as its eyes began to glow a light red color. The sky went cloudless as the sun shined brightly, its rays falling straight upon their spot on the hill.

May smiled confidently, "Bulbasaur, try to jump up there again, but this time, use Solarbeam!"

**_Bulbasaur!_** It exclaimed, tossing itself into the air and doing a midair front flip. Though Murkrow was still pecking Beautifly in amusement, its wings were glowing with Steel Wing, just _waiting_ for Bulbasaur to fail again. This time, that wasn't going to work. The Grass-type Pokémon's bulb had been storing the sunlight since Sunny Day was used, so it was ready.

Murkrow pulled its wing back to slap at it again, but that was when Bulbasaur unleashed the powerful blast of sunlight, Solarbeam. The Dark Bird cawed in surprise and agony, trapped inside the range of the attack. Beautifly, however, hovered down to land on May's head, panting on top of her bandana.

"Oh, Beautifly… Are you okay? Use Morning Sun."

The sun's rays were absorbed once again as Beautifly began to glow a soft golden color. After a moment, the glow shattered, leaving a glittering, fully healed Butterfly Pokémon to trill happily. May smiled at this before suddenly hearing the sound of another Solarbeam being shot out. She looked to Bulbasaur, who looked equally surprised as it continued to keep the _first_ Solarbeam going.

The second one came shooting out from the forest of trees behind them, colliding with Bulbasaur's and canceling both of them out. The collision resulted in an explosion of white smoke, Murkrow no longer visible. The smoke covered over the single tree that stood on that hill, but after a moment, everything was detectable again. May looked around; all her Pokémon were still there… The only one missing was that Murkrow.

The Coordinator turned around to look in the direction the second Solarbeam had come from, only to be met with the sight of a girl, seemingly older than herself, with a Houndoom growling at her (May) and the Murkrow perching on her shoulder (the girl). The newcomer had elbow-length golden brown hair and wore a black jean hat; the part where the hat stuck out shaded her eyes from view. She wore a black jean jacket over a grey T-shirt, and black jeans that flared at her ankles. It seemed that everything about this girl was Dark.

May would blink her bright blue eyes at her before speaking, "Who are you?"

The girl grinned grimly, turning around and disappearing, her Pokémon along with her.

The Coordinator would tilt her head; how mysterious… Shaking her head, she looked to her Pokémon and smiled, "Well, I guess that was our battle combination practice for the moment! Let's go over to the Gym and see if we can grab some breakfast before continuing."

The three Pokémon enthusiastically agreed; that battle gave them _quite_ a scare. Poor Beautifly was trapped up in the sky, and only Blaziken and Bulbasaur could save it.

Some food would do them some good…

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**Author's Notes... Again:**

Okay, I just wanted to point out that I'm not only going off of the show, I'm going off of the game, too. XD That explains why I put the Sunny Day-Solarbeam combination there. Anyway, how about dropping a Review? XP I need 5 more before I post the next one... But then again, I need to finish writing Chapter 05 and start on 06 today... Gaah, lots of work to do before going back to school, too...

Good Day! X3


	3. 03: Your Familiar Face

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing! Well... nothing but the Plot. Come to me, my lovely little Plot! -An Emerald Plot Bunny hops into her arms.- Now, what have we planned to take over possession of Pokémon? ... Nothing? Oh, poo! XP

**Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:**

Sorry for the long delay! Took me a while to finish Chapter 06. XP! Yeah, as soon as I finish the Chapter Number for double the Chapter Number of the last one posted here, I'll update with the next one. LoL! I won't post Chapter 04 until I at least finish Chapter 07 and start up Chapter 08, so... be patient! LoL! And be aware that it's not probable that I'll pass all my classes at school because I'm so obsessed with writing this fic. XD!!

**Key:**

" " Dialogue

_Thoughts_ or _Emphasis_

**_Pokémon Dialogue_**

**Onomatopoeia**

Now, in the words of my favorite character Rallen from **Spectrobes**...

_Iku ze!_ X3!

**

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**

**: Fragment No. 03 :**

**_Your Familiar Face_**

**KNOCK! KNOCK!!** May would glare at the Gym door; come _on_! There had to be _someone_ in there! Even if it was that weird guy with the glasses who tells you about the Gym Leader and congratulates you when you beat him! She began to growl, now **banging** on the door. And what about those underlings? The ones you fight before getting to the Leader? Where are _they_?! She just wanted somebody to open the door… _anybody_! Even…

The door finally opened, and the most unexpected, well… the _second_ most unexpected person, was standing before her.

"Brendan?"

Brendan Birch smiled softly at his childhood friend, placing an orange, black, and green fingerless gloved hand behind his head, "Hey, May… It's been a while!"

The Coordinator smiled pleasantly, "It sure has… but what're you doing in the Petalburg Gym?"

The white-haired trainer laughed nervously, "I got your dad to let me stay here at the Gym for a while… at least, until after the contest."

"What!? You were invited, too?" Now, _this_ was surprising, "I didn't know you were a Coordinator, Brendan!"

Again, he laughed, "Well, I guess that's what happens when you don't see someone for six years… I got the letter a few days ago, so I came straight here." He blushed lightly, "So… you're going to be in it, too, right, May? We're going to be rivals, then…"

"I guess so!—Hey, you wouldn't mind letting us in, would ya? We're kinda hungry…" May said, her stomach growling loudly, "Uhm… Okay, _really_ hungry."

Brendan shook his head, containing a chuckle as he opened the door some more and moved out of the way so that they could enter. As he held the door, he watched her and her Pokémon enter one-by-one. He _stared_ when he saw her Blaziken, walking back in after them all and closing and locking the door behind him.

"May, was that once your little Torchic?"

The female nodded, replying cheerfully, "Yup! It definitely grew up, didn't it? By the time Ash was done with the Battle Frontier, my Combusken finally evolved."

"Heh, I wish I could show you how my Mudkip's grown. He's a full-out Swampert now."

May looked around the room, searching for something. She smiled upon finding a small notch on the wall behind a pillar, sliding it to the side to reveal a hallway. She motioned for everyone to follow her as she walked on through, until she reached the hidden kitchen. She blinked, watching her Pokémon rush for bowls of Pokémon food that seemed to already be laid out for them.

"Brendan? Why was there…?"

The boy smiled, "Your dad came by earlier… I think he knew you'd come here for your break."

She chuckled; good ol' Dad… He always did know what she was going to do before she did it. She would approach a counter and just push herself up to sit on top of it, beckoning the other to join her. He obeyed, sitting beside her and watching her Pokémon gobble up their food.

"So, how've you been? I've been hearing news here and there about how great a Coordinator you are, but nobody seems to know where you are anymore." Brendan informed, tilting his head to the side away from her and looking to her gentle face out the corner of his eye.

She'd definitely matured since he saw her last… Hell, her fashion sense sure did! Just thinking about her outfit made him blush slightly.

"Well… I've been doing fine, I guess. I actually stayed with Ash and the others up until last week, then I started coming back here." She answered, watching as her Squirtle and Bulbasaur began to have an eating contest. She turned her head to look at him, noticing that he was wearing the exactly same style of outfit he'd worn when he started out on his adventure, excluding the new size and the change from black, red and white to black, green and orange. She shook her head, "You haven't changed, Brendan…"

"I suppose your right!" he laughed good-naturedly, looking away, "Nothing really changed while I was on the road, y'know? I was always moving around with only my Pokémon to keep me company."

It was then that May frowned, looking down at the floor with a slightly saddened look on her face, "I'm sorry… I really shouldn't have just gotten up and left six years ago, huh? I just randomly started tagging along with Ash, and then things went on from there."

Brendan shook his head, waving his hands out in front of him in embarrassment, "N-no! It's all right, May! I actually ran into Wally a few times!"

The girl brightened again to the point where it was almost impossible to think that she'd been downcast a moment ago, "Wally? Oh my gosh, how is he?"

"Haahaa! He's been doing all right! Actually, _he_ got invited to come to the contest, too! So, the three of us can be together again!"

May smiled happily; the three childhood friends would at last be reunited! How fun would that be? They always had such a great time with each other in the past, and since it'd been so long since they'd been together, there would definitely be a lot to talk about.

"I don't know what's going on, but just knowing that I'll be with you two again makes me feel… so happy to be home…"

Brendan nodded, "I know what y'mean…"

They sat in silence for a bit, the Pokémon having already finished eating. Just when Brendan was about to begin speaking again, there was a loud knock at the Gym doors again. May immediately got up, recalling all her Pokémon to their pokéballs before bowing in apology to her friend and going to answer it.

"Jeez! Could you have knocked any louder?" she said aloud, pulling open the doors as she spoke. She froze when she saw a familiar face staring straight into hers from the side of the door, "Dr-Drew…?"

Of the two doors that entered into the Gym, May had pulled open the left entrance. Turning her head to the outside of the right door, she saw the infamous Coordinator, Drew, leaning his shoulder against it and watching her with observant and mildly amused emerald eyes. His arms were folded over his usual long-sleeved black shirt and medium-sleeved purple jacket, one leg crossed over the other as he leant. Instead of his normal sea green pants, he now wore midnight black pants to match his shirt. His lips were curled into a slight smirk as he pulled up one hand and flicked his bright green hair the way he always did.

"Hmm… Any louder? Yeah, I'm pretty sure I could, but I'll bet that even _then_ you wouldn't be able to hear me!"

May growled, her irritation for his uncalled-for insults coming back into play after about five years. She opened her mouth to retort, but she was stopped before she could do so. A confused look was on her face when she saw the bright red rose held out to her.

She took it slowly, her fingers brushing against his. A light blush formed on her face when she looked back to his face, only to see the soft smile that she just knew he always reserved just for her. She too found herself smiling as the seconds rolled on.

"How's it going, May…" he finally greeted properly, pushing himself off of the door and standing up straight.

The girl tilted her head to the side, that bright smile on her face again, "Everything's fine! Actually, I'm even happier than I was before, knowing that you came!"

"Now, hold your horses! The only thing that brought me to Petalburg was the Extreme Pokémon Contest." Drew pointed out, raising an eyebrow and smirking as he continued, "But I'm flattered to know that you missed me enough to come so you could cheer me on!"

May pouted, her old denial-cover resurfacing, "I-Did-_Not_-Miss-You!! And I'm not here to cheer for you, 'cause I'll be too busy cheering for my_self_!" She smiled proudly, folding her arms and standing up straight, "I got invited to the contest, too, so it looks like we're gonna be rivals again!"

"Heh… Or so it appears…" the boy mumbled, "So, May, do you have a—"

"May? Hey, May!! Who's at the…" Brendan called; running up to the door and stopping the moment he saw the rose in his best friend's hand and the boy she was talking to. He glared jealously, "door… And, who're you?"

The female Coordinator looked from left-to-right and back again several times as she noticed the two boys glaring at each other. She didn't understand why, though… Shrugging, she went on with the introductions.

"Brendan, this is Drew. Drew, this is one of my childhood friends, Brendan."

Drew scoffed, flicking his hair again and regaining his superior-acting attitude, "It's a pleasure…"

"Ditto." Was all Brendan said, getting even angrier at how the other just started acting so high-and-mighty all of a sudden. He looked to May and spoke, "Y'know, May… We do still have a lot of catching up to do…"

May shook her head, smiling, "We can do that later, Brendan. Right now, though, I think I better get back to practicing. We've only got about five days until the contest, so I suggest you two do the same!"

She waved them both farewell and ran off behind the Gym again. Drew smirked at the obviously pissed off Pokémon trainer, shaking his head and turning around to leave. Brendan stomped back into the Gym and slammed the door shut. The Coordinator couldn't help chuckling as he walked behind the Gym the way May had gone.

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"Alright! Great job, Leafeon!" he heard May's voice call out.

Drew approached a tree and leant his shoulder against it as he watched the girl practicing a routine with what seemed to be another new Eeveelution. He grinned slightly; she must've gone to the Sinnoh Grand Festival a while back. He'd been planning on going, but other things got in the way and he wound up sitting that one out. Occasionally, he went to watch her in secret, though. Shaking his thoughts away, he went on to watch.

"Alright, let's use Sunny Day!" the girl commanded, pointing to the cloudy sky. It was obvious that the first Sunny Day had worn off.

Leafeon was a Grass-type Eeveelution discovered in the Sinnoh region. It was the exact same size as an Umbreon, but a little bit skinny, like a larger cat. It's tail and ears were long and were topped with the color of a green leaf, not to mention they _looked_ like leaves. There were little leaves sticking out at its paws, too, and around near it's neck. Lastly, it had a leaf coming out of its forehead that was curled to look almost like a curled strand of hair.

**_Leee!_** It cried, hopping up high into the air and doing several front flips before finally stopping as it reached the highest it could stay in midair. Its dark brown eyes glowed a bright orange color as the clouds separated and allowed the sun to shine down on them.

"Perfect! Now, use Synthesis!"

As the Fresh Green Pokémon descended back to the ground, its whole body began to glow the color its eyes had moments before. The glow grew brighter and brighter as it flipped in the air again before landing on its feet nimbly. The second its paws touched the grass of the hill, the glow shattered, leaving a sparkling Leafeon to smile brightly.

**_Leee! Leafeon!_** It yipped, turning around to face its trainer and hopping up and down, awaiting praise.

May laughed merrily, catching Leafeon in her arms the third time it'd hopped into the air, "That was awesome! Everyone's doing so well, Leafeon! We're definitely going to win!"

Drew's grin widened into a smirk at her confidence. Although, deep down, he believed her. Just seeing how well she was able to command her Pokémon to do such a simple yet eye-catching display… he knew that this would be one entertaining contest.

Pulling out a pokéball from his pocket, he gently tossed it into the air. Out came his Masquerain, its wings flapping slowly as it kept itself airborne. He put a finger to his lip, motioning for it to stay quiet.

"Use Silver Wind." He whispered, pointing over to where May and Leafeon were still chatting.

It nodded, flapping its wings in the direction of the others atop the hill. The soft breeze it created carried bright shimmering silver sparkles along with it as it blew along.

May blinked in confusion, holding her Leafeon out in front of her and staring at it, "Did you use Silver Wind? Wait, no… you don't know how to use it, right? Or… did you just learn it?"

Drew chuckled quietly; whispering another command, "Now, use a soft Gust to make the Silver Wind revolve around them."

**_Masquerain!_** It chirped, a less-than-powerful Gust attack appearing. Now, it seemed that May and Leafeon were trapped inside a beautiful silver cloud.

The female Coordinator let her Leafeon down, a smile on her face as she spun around twice to see the whole cloud, "Wow! It's so sparkly!"

The hidden Coordinator smiled contentedly, having heard such an indirect compliment from someone he cares about. He nodded to his Pokémon, "Now, let's finish it up with Agility and Water Sport."

Masquerain went to work right away, zooming out of sight as it used Agility. It was nearly invisible! It spun around with the Silver Gust, releasing several balls of water to jump around inside of the cloud. Every time they hit the ground, the water would splash out with the sparkles it picked up from flying in the Silver Wind.

May laughed as one of the spheres of water splashed her, coating her with Silver sparkles. She picked up her hands to shield herself as another splash came, closing one eye and laughing as if she were having the time of her life.

Drew loved to see her like this… She had fun with just about anything, didn't she? Even when she didn't know where it was coming from, she could still make it seem like it was all just fun and games. Technically, it _was_ just for the fun of it. He wanted to see her reaction to his routine, but of course, when he pictured it, she knew that it'd been him who did it. Having done it this way, he'd stay anonymous until the contest came.

His emerald green eyes watched her fondly for a few moments more before he snapped his fingers. Masquerain, without slowing down, zoomed straight back to his side, being recalled into its pokéball straight away.

The female Coordinator blinked when everything at last came to a stop, picking up her hands to see that the sparkles were still on her gloves… and her clothes. She blinked again, laughing good-naturedly.

"Look, Leafeon! We're all glittery!"

Drew looked up from the pokéball he now held, only to have his eyes go wide and, surprisingly, his cheeks go red as they warmed significantly.

May had all the sparkles from the Silver Wind on all her clothes and on her bandana. With that dazzling smile and melodic laugh of hers, she looked… absolutely _stunning_, in his eyes. He picked up his right hand and touched his cheek; it was warm… Was he actually _blushing_!?

It only made him blush even more, but in embarrassment. He tore his gaze away from the girl he'd come to hold dear to him, and ran off as fast as he could.

_This can't be happening… I can't _blush_! It's just… not Me!_ He screamed in his head as he continued to flee from the area of the Petalburg Gym. He suddenly came to a stop by a Stop sign, catching his breath easily, "What is" he would looked back toward the way he came, over to where the sun's rays were strongest, "she doing to me…?"

* * *

**Extra Notes & Nonsense:**

Okay! Brendan's in the picture now, and I finally entered Drew! Taahaa! So, what'd y'all think? I need Reviews, People! ;D! LoL! Until next time!


	4. 04: Reunion of Comrades

**Disclaimer:** Again? Seriously, must we go through this _every_ single _time_!? I own nothing! The plot, it belongs to me, yes, but not the Pokémon! I am not blessed!

**Author's Notes & Nonsense:**

Taahaa! It took me 5 hours to finally finish Chapter 08. 3 hours to make myself start writing it and 2 to finish it. XP! So, naturally, it's time to post Chapter 04! XD!

Sorry it took so long, but this week has been really sucky. We got our Report Cards and I got 1 C, 1 B, and the rest are A's. I got lucky, 'cause I get 5 extra points added to my Core Classes for being in Pre-AP. So, in actuality, I got 1 B and the rest are A's! Took a while for my mom to get it through her head, though, so I may not be able to use the computer as much. But not to worry! I can stay at school for about 2 hours more just to use the computer! I'll write over there if I can't here! Cha!

Anyway, on with the show! ;D

**

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**

: Fragment No. 04 :

**_Reunion of Comrades_**

May hummed to herself as she walked around in the kitchen of her house, putting away dried dishes that her mother was currently washing. Dinner had ended and Norman was off to the Gym to meet up with Brendan for some reason… Was her dad helping her best friend for the contest? She pouted at the thought; how could her father turn on her like that!? That's awful! It's treason! Treason against family and blood!

She put the plate in the cupboard with a harsh **THUD!** Caroline winced at the sound; her poor china! May's mother sighed, turning off the faucet and turning around to look at her daughter.

"May… is anything wrong?"

The teenager blinked, snapping out of her thoughts and shaking her head, "No… not really. Why do you ask?"

"Because I fear for my good china's life! For Heaven's sake, May! Let it go!"

She looked to the plate, seeing that her hands were gripping it so tightly that it looked like it wouldn't go even a few more seconds without breaking. She immediately let it go, sighing in defeat as she closed the cupboard and faced her mother.

"Well... It's not that anything's wrong… I guess I'm just a little nervous."

"Nervous? About what, Sweetie? The contest? I'm sure you'll do just fine!" Caroline tried to cheer her up.

"No… no, that's not it. I think it's because everybody I know is starting to show up." She put her arms around herself as she approached a window there in the kitchen, looking out into the reddish/orangeish-colored sky of evening, "I saw Harley this morning… And then I met up with Brendan and he told me that Wally's gonna come, too! But the one I'm most nervous about…"

Her mother smiled, approaching her from behind and putting her hands on her shoulders thoughtfully, "It's _him_, isn't it?"

May nodded, looking down at the floor, "Drew showed up at the Gym... and he looked so different, Mom! I mean… it's not that he's outwardly changed a _lot_, and he still teases me…"

As she trailed off again, the rose she now held in her hand caught her mother's eye. She suppressed a giggle.

"Oh, May..." she chuckled, hugging the wonderful little girl she'd taken care of for the longest time, "I know you're in love with him... So, why don't you tell him?"

The teen jumped, spinning around and _staring_ at her mother in disbelief, "Moom! What if he doesn't like me back, though? Why would he, anyway? He's got tons of fangirls who follow him around all the time..." She went from yelling to mumbling in less than five seconds.

Caroline shook her head, folding her arms and motioning with her eyes to what she held in her hand, "And just what, may I ask, is that? Didn't he give that to you?"

"Well… yes, but—"

"Roses are symbolic, May! Just look at it… Would he have given that to you if he didn't like you? Think back to how he was acting when he gave it to you. His facial expression, tone of voice…? Those usually give feelings away!"

May froze as she remembered exactly how he was acting… and how he looked. He'd greeted her with an insult, like usual… but before she could blow up at him, he gave her the rose. He'd been smiling… the kind of smile that made May smile, too, and… his voice went from arrogant and stuck-up to nice and gentle.

She blushed; could it be…? Could he seriously like her? Shaking her head, she decided to keep her hope a secret from her mother. She wound up stuttering, "H-he just tossed the rose to me before leaving! Just like a bunch of times before!"

"Mm-hm…"

She pouted; it was obvious that her mother knew she was lying from the way she was grinning at her. She stomped away, mumbling that she was going to her room. Caroline, however, just laughed at her triumphant victory.

May shut the door to her room after entering and jumped backward onto the bed, staring up at the ceiling with a doubtful look on her face. Drew wouldn't like her… would he? _It kinda would explain a few things…_ She shook her head again to clear her head of such nonsense.

"Stop thinking about it!" she shouted at herself, pushing herself up and walking over to the window. She pushed it open and looked down toward the rosebud she'd found yesterday. She blinked, however, finding more than just the red rose, "Huh…?"

Beside the red rose was another rose... one that seemed to be white in color. Tilting her head in confusion, she leant over the windowsill and got a closer look at the two. They were growing pretty close together… and they had thorns. Sooner or later, they'd either start to grow by intertwining toward the sun or by trying to beat one another to the light. How strange…

"Well, well! Look who fell out the window!" came a quick and sudden loud voice.

May let out a cry as she felt her stomach fall into contact with the windowsill. Since the window was quite a few feet from the ground, she wound up flipping over the sill and falling down… _beside_ the roses and not on top of them. She sat up quickly, looking over toward the sidewalk to see a smug-looking Drew standing there with a hand in his pocket.

She immediately blushed, remembering what her mother had been pointing out in the kitchen. They'd just been talking about him, and now, here he was! She gulped silently, watching as he approached her with a smirk on his face.

"Wow, May," he said, flicking his bangs before holding out his hand to help her get back up, "you really fell for me this time! Need a hand?"

"Me? Fall for _you_? Get real!" she barked, but she did, nonetheless, take his hand and pull herself up… with his help.

As a matter of fact, he wound up pulling too hard and making her fall into him, making him stumble a bit before regaining balance. Now, May was as red as a Tamato Berry. Gathering up all her courage, she slowly looked up at the boy. Her deep blue eyes went wide for a moment; she could have _sworn_ that she saw him blushing! It only lasted a split second, though, because in the blink of an eye, it was gone and he was smirking down at her again.

"You're really light…"

She pouted, "Random much?"

"No, I mean it." Drew said, putting his hands on her waist and picking her up, only to set her back down on her feet, "You're as light as a _balloon_; how did this happen? Don't you stuff your face every chance you get? I expected you to be a lot heavier…"

She was blushing from the feel of his hands at her waist, but growling that he was insulting her again. She was so tempted to sick one of her Pokémon on him, but she knew that they wouldn't do anything… They knew she liked him, so that wouldn't work. Deciding that if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself, she pulled her hand back.

The male Coordinator only smirked at her, causing her to get even more riled up. Swinging her hand back around forward, she was sure that she'd manage to slap his right cheek. But alas, it didn't work that way. His own right hand shot up and _caught_ her wrist before even her fingers could brush against his skin.

She was now audibly growling at him, white teeth bared as she tried to keep herself under control. All the other did was continue smirking at her.

"Come on, May, do you really want to hit me? What good would it do?"

"It'd make me feel better, that's what it'd do!" she replied, pulling her wrist out of his grasp and folding her arms as she turned away from him, "Hmph… So, what'd you want? You must've had a reason for making me fall out here."

Drew just shrugged, "I won't be around tomorrow, or the next day, since I'll be training for the contest… But I was wondering if maybe you wanted to train with me on the 13th?"

May blinked; now, _that_ was unexpected… She turned around to face him again, only to find him holding another bright red rose out to her. Memories of her mother's conversation came back to her once again.

_Roses are symbolic, May! Just look at it… Would he have given that to you if he didn't like you?_

She blushed lightly, thanking the clouds in the sky that had finally begun to darken. Reaching her hand out, she took the rose and smiled shyly at him, "Umm… Sure! What could it hurt?"

Drew smiled back, nodding; "I'll see you, then…" He picked up his hand and gave her an informal two-finger salute before turning around and walking off into the darkness.

The girl sighed once he was out of sight, holding the thorn-less rose close to her. She slid the stem behind her ear and through her hair, making sure that it would stay there. Smiling at her luck, she put her hands on the windowsill and hoisted herself back up to her room, closing the window and getting ready for bed.

This was definitely going to be _some_ week! Tomorrow, and quite possibly the next day, she'd be catching up with her two old friends, and then on the 13th, she'd be training with the guy of her dreams!

Once she was ready for bed, she sat down on her mattress and hugged one of her huge pillows tightly in an attempt to suppress her excitement, "This is going to be so much fun!"

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"May! Where're you going?" Caroline asked, following her daughter all around the kitchen in an attempt to get her attention and some answers.

"I thought I told you already, Mom! I'm going over to Wally's house! I'm meeting up with Brendan and him there so we can hang out." May replied, taking three napkin-wrapped packages of Lava Cookies as her distribution to their reunion.

"Oh, goodie! I'll come, too!"

"No, you won't!" the girl immediately declared, fire in her eyes as she stared at her mother. She obviously didn't want to be embarrassed in front of her childhood friends… like all teens.

"I was just kidding…" her mother mumbled, turning around and going back to making breakfast for herself and Norman, "Have a nice time, Dear."

"Thanks, Mom!" she cried as she dashed out the door in the direction of the Petalburg Gym. If she remembered correctly, then his house should be near it, "Ah-hah!"

"Hey, May!" Brendan smiled, waving at her from beside a mailbox.

The girl waved back, laughing as the third person in their trio finally came into view. The dark golden-haired boy looked up from the mailbox and smiled at her.

"May!"

"Yaay! It's Wally!" She ran faster than she'd been when she was on her way there, waiting to get close enough.

The boys realized too late; they couldn't get out of the way! May _pounced_ on top of the two, bringing all three of them down onto the grassy ground. The trio began to laugh at how childish they were acting; they'd always do this exact thing when they were still kids! They all got up, Wally leading them into his house.

"It's great to have the whole team back together!" he said as he closed and locked the door.

"You bet it is! How's it been going, Wally?" May asked, smiling as she put a hand on her hip and stood in the middle of the hall.

"It's been okay, actually! I was able to make it all the way to Sinnoh last year, isn't that great?"

"Definitely amazing! I mean, with your health condition, it would be almost impossible to happen without problems… Did anything bad happen as you went?" she asked worriedly.

Wally shook his head confidently, "I was absolutely fine the whole way there! Every few cities, I'd see Brendan, though. I guess we follow each other even when we're apart, huh?"

Brendan nodded, laughing at the irony. May was only able to laugh weakly. So, two of the three were able to semi-stay together? _She_ had gone to Sinnoh about a year ahead of them for the Sinnoh Grand Festival, while they were probably in Kanto or Johto for a Pokémon League. She knew that Brendan wanted to be a great Pokémon Master, and Wally always wanted to do the same, but he had bad health conditions that otherwise wouldn't have let him do it. It seemed that he was doing okay on his own, though, so she was very happy for him.

The only reason she wasn't quite enjoying herself around her friends was that she was always in a different region than they were. She didn't want to be a Pokémon Master, like they did… She wanted to be the best Pokémon Coordinator!

Even now, she wasn't really paying attention to what they were talking about. She was looking from left to right at them, watching the two merrily speak with each other, but she'd tuned them out. Shaking her head to clear it, she was able to hear them talking again, only just realizing that they were talking about the upcoming contest.

"I can't believe we're all gonna be competing against each other... and after we just met back up again!" Wally whined, playing with the rim of his long left sleeve. He still wore the same outfit he wore when they first started out… He didn't seem to grow in size either, other than growing taller. He was still as skinny as ever.

Brendan was now leaning against the wall with his arms folded, "Well, hey! Look on the bright side! We get to see what we're made of!" He laughed.

"Yeah, keep on laughing, Brendan! Just because you beat me last time doesn't mean you'll beat me next time! Besides, we still have to get through the Appeals before the battles, right? Let's see if you can make it through that round! And don't forget, we may not be paired against each other for the battle, if you do!"

The white-haired Pokémon trainer sighed, putting his hands behind his head and closing one eye, "Jeez, do y'gotta point everything out right away?"

"Well, he's right…" May piped, getting quieter with each word.

"Huh!?" Brendan winced, standing up straight and looking to his female friend with wide eyes.

"Uhm… What I meant to say is that…in normal Pokémon Contests, there's the Appeal Round, and as many Battle Rounds as it takes to get down to one person. This isn't going to be a normal Pokémon Contest, though, so we'll have to keep our eyes open for surprises." She explained, twiddling her fingers.

"Yeah! Leave it to an expert Coordinator like May to set things straight!" the golden-haired boy exclaimed, laughing again.

Brendan, however, stayed silent. He looked over to the girl and had a worried look on his face. After hearing that explanation and seeing how she was acting as she said it, he was really starting to wonder…

_May… Have you no faith in me?_ He thought; well, it should be understandable, right? She'd never seen him in a contest before… He put on a determined face, vowing to show May just how good a Coordinator he could be, next to being a great Pokémon trainer, too.

And so, the trio went on and on for the rest of the day, talking about the adventures they'd gone on and all the amazing things they saw and experienced on their pathways.

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**Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:**

Meep! Finally done! LoL! Now, y'gotta Review! Why? Because I like Reviews. They make me feel like I need to post the next chapter, yup yup! I'm always expecting at least 5 Reviews, and what do I get? 4! Well, close enough, right? XP! Let's see how long it takes for me to finish and start Chapter 09 and 10.

Until next time! G'night, Everybody! XD!


	5. 05: What We're Made Of

**Disclaimer:** --starts crying-- WHY ME!? WHY COULDN'T I BE BLESSED WITH THE OWNERSHIP OF POKEMON!? Meh, I've settled for just owning the plot of this story... --sigh-- Oh well...

**Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:**

Whee! It's time for Fragment #5 to be added! You know what that means! Yup! I finished writing Fragment #10 only but 10 minutes ago! LOL!! But, as things stand, I've got lots more work to do... So let's go on, shall we?

OMFG, I FORGOT TO PUT THE KEY IN THE LAST CHAPTER!!! XD!! Oh well, here it is, if anybody needs it!

**Key:**

" " Dialogue

_Thoughts/Emphasis_

**_Pokémon Speech_**

**Onomatopoeia**

Yaay! Let's get on with the fic! X3!

**

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**

**: Fragment No. 05 :**

**What We're Made Of**

May would sigh as she sat up in bed. She looked out the corner of her eye to the pokéball alarm clock sitting on her nightstand; it read 5:53 AM. It was actually pretty early for her to be awake, but after everything that'd happened yesterday, and everything that was planned to happen _today_… She would just get out of bed and get into her usual outfit… Clean, of course, thanks to her mother.

Having tied her bandana around her head, she turned around and exited her room, and soon after, the whole house. If she was going to spend the day with Brendan and Wally again, she probably wouldn't have any time to practice with her Pokémon for the contest. And they only had a few days before it came up on them!

Seeing that she probably wouldn't be able to get any more sleep, she thought this would be the opportune time to get in some training! Now, she was heading toward the back of the Petalburg Gym. It was, in her opinion, the best place to train because it was close to the Gym, where if she needed anything she could take it. The Gym was also the place where the trio was going to meet up today, so it would save her a walk if she trained there.

"All right, Masquerain, let's see Silver Wind!" a voice exclaimed.

May jumped at the sudden command, hiding behind the nearest tree she could find before looking out to the hill. Her eyes went wide when she saw her rival Drew standing atop the hill with his Masquerain floating in front of him. The Eyeball Pokémon flapped its tiny set of double-wings in the direction of the trees opposite from where May was watching. The silvery wind cut through the many leaves of the tree it'd been aiming at, leaving a large gap in the view.

"Heh, I guess it's alright. It's perfect for the battles, at least." He flicked his hair before he looked out the corner of his eye to the direction of May's current hiding place and his previous one. He grinned slightly before going on, "Give Bubblebeam a try, then!"

**_Mas!_** It cried as several bubbles were suddenly blown out of it; it spun around in circles as it did so, leaving the bubbles to float around everywhere.

"_Now_, do Silver Wind again!"

The powerful Bug-type move would blow all over the place as it continued to spin, even getting Drew in the blast. He, however, was unaffected; he just stood there was a hand in his pocket and a smirk on his face.

The blast would push all the bubbles further out before they actually went **Pop!** As Masquerain at last came to a stop, the wind continued to blow with sparkles being carried on its current.

May was watching in silent awe, when suddenly, one of the bubbles popped in her face. She let out a high-pitched but half-second squeak out of surprise, slapping her gloved-hand over her mouth immediately.

Drew smirked at the reaction he'd gotten out of her, deciding to go for another approach, "Masquerain, use Water Sport!" He pointed in May's direction.

The girl, having pushed herself back against the tree with her eyes shut and hand over her mouth, didn't know what the boy was planning. The Pokémon shot out several Water Guns until they became the spheres of water it wanted. Every ball of liquid flew through the air and smashed into the trunk of the tree and into the leaves.

May tried her best not to make a sound, her hand now clamped _hard_ over her mouth. She couldn't let the other know that she was there! Or… wait, did he already know? She glared at the air; was he doing this on purpose?

"Finish it up with Water Gun!"

**_Masqueraain!_** It chirped, shooting out a stream of water and aiming for the top of the tree's leaves, where the Water Sport had collected. The sudden rush of additional water caused the top of the tree to release all the water at once, making it all fall straight down on May.

She let out a gargled scream as she was unexpectedly showered with the fully developed prank the other Coordinator had come up with. She glared again as she got up and got out into plain sight, her arms folded as she stared at him. An irritated look was on her face.

"Oh! Hey, May, I didn't see you there…" Drew said innocently, chuckling as quietly as he could, which wasn't very.

May, with her eyes narrowed at him, walked straight up to him with her hands clenched into fists. The boy was just smirking knowingly.

"What? You're not gonna try to hit me again, are you?"

He started laughing again, but this time, out loud. The girl, now closer, merely stared at him before opening her mouth and spitting out the water she'd caught in her mouth from the prank at his face. He coughed, his own face now wet and his bangs sticking to him. A glare formed in his emerald green eyes, directed straight for her.

"Hey! You have no right to be looking at me like that! It's your own fault; _you're_ the one who got me all drenched like this. It's only fair that I set things evenly… even if it was just as small as that!"

"Y'want me to do it again?" he asked threateningly, eyes going from a glare to narrow and amused.

May pulled out a pokéball and tossed it upward, releasing her beloved little Squirtle. The Tiny Turtle Pokémon landed in her open arms, and she looked up from it to Drew with a smirk on her face.

The green-haired Coordinator took a step back, guessing at what she was planning, "May, what the hell're you gon—"

"Use Water Gun, Squirtle!"

**_Squir—TLLLLE!_** It exclaimed, shooting the water at the other, succeeding in completely soaking him.

"Oops, sorry, I didn't think you'd just stand there gawking." She said in the same innocent voice he'd used earlier, going on to giggle at how funny he looked with his clothes clinging to him like they were dying.

Drew would then proceed to flick his hair out of his face before spitting out his own little stream of water, smirking dangerously, "Alright, then… It's _on_, now!"

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It went on for at least 25 more minutes before someone did something different. May and her Squirtle had just scurried behind a tree for about the umpteenth time, followed by Drew and his Masquerain in another attempt to catch them by surprise, as usual. The girl was giggling continually, obviously not trying to keep herself quiet.

It was then, however, that a hand reached out and grabbed May's shoulder, causing her to let out a surprised gasp. She spun around to see her _father_ staring straight down at her with his arms folded over his chest.

"D-Dad!" she said, stunned. Oh boy, did she just get herself into trouble?

"Nice try, May, but like all the other times, you just didn't quite make it!" Drew's voice rang out before another Water Gun was shot over in her direction.

"Drew, no!" she cried before she, as well as her father, was drenched in the oncoming attack.

A smirking Drew turned the corner of the tree to look over at May, only to freeze with a shocked look on his face, "M-Mister Maple!"

The blue-haired Gym Leader stared long and hard at the young Coordinators before speaking to his daughter, "So, then… you've been here the whole time? Playing with that guy?" He pointed over to the boy.

"Hey! The name's Drew!" Drew shouted, taking it as an insult the way Norman just called him _'that guy.'_ He would flick his hair again, looking over to the girl, "I'll see you around, May. Later."

And so, he turned around and left, his Masquerain with him. This left May to stare down at her feet in shame; was her father going to scold her for playing such a game with the other Coordinator?

Norman just stared at her again before sighing in defeat and putting a hand over the side of his face, "Listen, May… The only reason I came back here was to find you and tell you that Brendan and Wally are looking for you."

May looked up at her father immediately, a confused look on her face; she wasn't in trouble? The Gym Leader just smiled at his daughter's obvious cluelessness, patting her on the head.

"You're not in trouble… Although, you might be with Brendan if you don't hurry up and meet up with them."

She laughed, nodding, turning to run off, but turning back around to kiss her father on the cheek, "Thanks, Dad!" With that said, she ran off.

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"Hey, look! There she is!" Wally said, pointing toward the bushes to the side of the Gym.

Brendan quickly jumped up and leaned over on of the support beams to see the red-clad Coordinator run up to them, "Took y'long enough, May! Where _were_ you?"

May laughed nervously, putting a hand behind her head as she stood before her two best friends, "Well, umm… I was practicing in the back! I guess I lost track of time, that's all."

"As long as you made it, I'm fine!" Wally pointed out, smiling brightly, "You remember what we were gonna do today, right?"

"Of course! We were gonna show our Pokémon, because it's not fair for you two to know each other's Pokémon while I don't!" she replied, sticking her tongue out at them.

"You can look at it like that, if y'want, but let's go on into the Gym. It's getting pretty hot out." Brendan pointed out, looking up at the brilliantly shining sun with one eye closed and picking up a hand to shield his vision, "Geez, how'd you stand being out here that long?"

May suppressed another nervous laugh; she couldn't tell them that she was actually playing a Water Gun fight with Drew… At least there was one good thing about the hot and sunny day: it dried her clothes on her run there.

The trio entered the Gym, going over to the battlefield while chatting along, "Since we got worried after fifteen minutes, we asked your dad if he knew where you were." May shook her head while grinning; only Dad would know where to find her. Now… Drew would, too.

She blushed lightly, but was tapped on the shoulder. Her eyes snapped up to look at who did it, seeing the white-haired trainer before her, "Uhm… Yes?"

He smiled at her, nodding as he turned to Wally and called out, "She says she'll show hers first, Wally! Calm down!"

May nearly jumped; she just agreed to something?! Wait… she just needed to let out all her Pokémon! Smiling, she took out her six pokéballs and held three in each hand. She would turn around in a spin before jumping up and tossing up all of the balls.

"C'mon out, everybody!"

In bright flashes of white light, her Squirtle, Bulbasaur, Skitty, Beautifly, Leafeon, and Blaziken appeared. Beautifly automatically flew over to its trainer and landed on her head, its wings falling to either side of her face before lifting back up to show off the colors to the other two humans.

**_Nyaah!_** Cried Skitty, spinning around in circles as it chased its excitedly wagging tail. It actually was spinning around at such a fast speed that it tripped and _flew_ back to Wally's feet. The said-trainer laughed, bending down and picking up the cute little Kitten Pokémon.

"You got one, too, May? Oh, but it's still a Skitty; I evolved mine into Delcatty a few years ago." He explained, holding Skitty like a baby in his right arm and waving his left index finger at it.

**_Nyah! Nyaaah!_** It purred, trying to paw at his finger, but always missing. After a few tries, Wally just put his whole hand to Skitty's belly and started tickling it, **_Nyaaah! Nyaahaanyaah!_**

May laughed at how well Wally and her Skitty were getting along, but then turned to Brendan to see that he seemed to be inspecting her Blaziken. She blinked; well, it kinda _was_ her first Pokémon, and it's probably the only one he'd be even slightly close to. She could tell, though, that Blaziken was getting annoyed.

"Umm… Hey, Brendan? What're you doing?"

"Your Blaziken looks really strong… It's definitely improved from that tiny little Torchic you left with." He grinned at his best friend, giving her a thumbs-up and a wink, "How about… a battle?"

"What!? Are you serious, Brendan? I'm not a trainer, like you! I'm a Coordinator!" she exclaimed, making an unsure look. She didn't want her Blaziken to get hurt… but then she saw the look on its face: Determination. Sighing in defeat, she nodded, "Alright, fine…"

"Yes! And don't worry, I'll go easy on ya!" Brendan called as he ran to one side of the battlefield and took out a Pokéball, "Let's go! Swampert!"

The Mud Pokémon popped out of the pokéball, landing heavily on the left side of the field. It let out a roar, telling all the Pokémon in the Gym that it was ready to battle. May bit her lip upon seeing what her best friend's Mudkip turned into, wondering if it was really such a good idea to battle, especially with a type disadvantage. She looked to her Blaziken.

"You sure you're up for it?"

**_Blaze!_** It nodded, reassuring her as it high-jumped to the right side of the field, May standing in the box to the right.

"Alright, let's do it!"

Wally walked up to the center of the side of the field, holding up his hands, "This is a battle between Brendan of Littleroot Town and May of the Petalburg Gym! Each trainer may use only one Pokémon and there is no time limit! Now, begin!"

The moment his hands fell to his sides, Brendan commanded an attack, "Alright, Swampert! Use Take Down!"

**_Pert!_** It obeyed, rushing off on all fours toward May's Blaziken.

"Blaziken, dodge it and use Blaze Kick!" she cried, watching her first Pokémon jump up into the air, causing Swampert to stop in its tracks and watch, as well.

Blaziken did a front flip in the air and brought its leg down on the Water-type's head, dealing damage with a direct hit.

"Grab it!" the white-haired trainer shouted from the other side of the field.

May stared, "What!?"

**_Blaze!!_** The Fire-type cried upon feeling a strong grip on its ankle when its opponent grabbed it.

"Use Flamethrower!!"

"Use Water Gun!!"

Though Blaziken was in a real pickle, it still opened its beak and shot out the stream of fire in an attempt to ward off the other's attack. All this accomplished was rising steam through the Gym as the cool liquid of the Water Gun collided with the high temperatures of the Flamethrower. In other words…

They were evenly matched.

"Let's take it up a notch, Swampert! Use Hydro Pump!"

_That could be bad!_ May thought quickly, "Blaziken, use Blaze Kick to get away from it, then use Fire Spin!"

The Blaze Pokémon immediately smashed Swampert in the face, managing to get itself loose and jump away from it before Hydro Pump could be released. It was then that it let out the powerful Fire attack that was Fire Spin. Before the Water-type could do anything, the fire had already trapped it inside of a flaming twister.

Brendan stared in disbelief, "Use Hydro Pump to get out of there! C'mon, Swampert!!"

"Blaziken, finish it up with another Blaze Kick!"

Blaziken jumped up, flipping over through the top of the Fire Spin and Blaze Kicked Swampert on top of its head, winding up standing on top of the Pokémon as the twister disappeared. It had one foot on top of Swampert while the other was on the ground, and the said-Mud Pokémon was down for the count.

Brendan couldn't move; did he just lose? Wally too was amazed, but raised up his hand to May's side of the field and waved it, "And the winner is May of the Petalburg Gym! Way to go, May!"

The girl blinked, looking to her Blaziken. It looked pretty worn out, though short as the match had been. Picking up its pokéball, she had it return to the ball in order to rest. Her other Pokémon scurried up to her, jumping up and down happily. Beautifly, however, had been on her head the whole time. She bent down to the other four Pokémon and smiled.

"We actually won!"

Brendan approached them all, grinning toothily as he held out his hand to not only help her up, but to congratulate her, "Nice battling, there, May! What was that about earlier? Acting all scared… Oh, I get it! You were trying to get me all riled up, thinking I had this one in the bag, weren't you?"

May laughed embarrassedly; if she didn't agree, then he might feel bad, "Well… yeah… Sorry about that!"

"Heh, no problem… I just need to be more careful, right?" he folded his arms; he'd returned Swampert to its pokéball earlier.

"Hey, hey!! Let me have a turn! I wanna battle you again, Brendan! Let's see who's better now!" Wally exclaimed, all battle-happy thanks to that battle between Swampert and Blaziken.

"Alright, alright, hold your horses…"

May laughed, deciding to play referee this time. This really _was_ fun!

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She sighed when she finally made it home that evening, just in time for dinner! She was smiling brightly; apparently, her day with Brendan and Wally had gone well! Standing at the porch, she blinked, looking down at something that'd been placed at the doorstep. Bending down, she picked up the large wrap of paper, only to gasp when she found what it really was.

A bouquet of red roses! She smiled again, finding a small card attached to it. Pulling it off, she looked for a name… but there was none, other than her own. Opening it up, at least there was a note…

_Can't wait to see you tomorrow._

She giggled excitedly; only one person could have sent this for her! Hugging the roses to her chest, she gave them a long whiff before entering her house. She'd have to find a nice vase to put these in, because this was the first time Drew gave her more than one rose at one time!

* * *

**Emerald's Extra Notes:**

Haahaahaa!! I've given you the 5th Chapter! Now, now! I'm holding the 6th Chapter hostage! I'll need at _least_ 5 Reviews ransom before I post it! ;D! But, I'll also have to finish Chapter 12, so I'll get started now. LOL!


	6. 06: Roses are Red

**Disclaimer:** Apparently, I have not any choice but to go through this in _every_. _single._ _chapter_. I do not own Pokémon, nor do I believe I ever will. --cries--

**Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:**

FINALLY! decided to start working again! I've been trying to post this chapter for about 3 or 4 days now, so... blame for the wait! XD! Anyway, you might think I finished Chapter 12, since I posted this 06 Chapter, right? WRONG! I felt bad for holding out so long, so I decided to post it right now. I'm actually writing the first page for the 12th chapter now. XD!

THANK YOU, EVERYONE, FOR YOUR KIND AND WONDERFUL REVIEWS! When I first started writing this fic and posted the 1st Chapter, I felt like it was going to suck, but you guys make me feel so special! I'LL GLADLY CONTINUE IT FOR YOU GUYS! --hugs each and every one of you--

**Key:**

" " Dialogue

_Thoughts and Emphasis_

**_Pokémon Talking_**

**Onomatopoeia**

I'M GIVING YOU GUYS THE FFS! **FIRST FLUFFY SCENE** of the Story!

DREW AND MAY FOREVER, PEOPLES! READ ON!

* * *

**: Fragment No. 06 :**

**_Roses are Red_**

She squealed delightedly the moment the clock struck **5:30 AM**. Normally, she would've been asleep at this hour… Even if she did wake up this early lately, she'd been waiting for the time that she knew she could meet up with her crush. Well, he technically didn't tell her what time, but at this particular time of morning, she knew for sure that he was probably waiting at The Spot for her.

She was already dressed and had been waiting for the clock, now she sprinted out of her room and toward the door, when she was suddenly stopped.

"May!"

She froze; that voice… She slowly turned around, seeing her father Norman standing in the kitchen doorway and watching her through narrowed eyes. May should have known that her father woke up this early… He _was_ the Gym Leader, after all.

"Where're you going this early in the morning?" he leant back against the wall, his arms folded.

"Uhm…" She couldn't just lie to him… what if he came looking for her again? But what if he found her with Drew again? Sighing, she knew she couldn't keep the truth hidden. She never was able to keep secrets from her father, "Well, I'm going to practice…"

_Well, that _is_ true… Maybe I won't have to tell him the _whole_ truth!_ She thought hopefully.

"Are you going to be 'practicing' with that Drew-boy from yesterday?"

_Oh, why me…_ She wanted to cry, but kept a straight face. She laughed embarrassedly; did she have to answer? The man just sighed, shaking his head as he approached her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"Listen, May… Be careful, all right? I let you hang around with Brendan and Wally because I know their parents. Since I don't know anything about Drew, I'm still a little iffy about letting you go with him."

May looked down, "But… why, Dad? He's a really nice guy!—Well, when he _wants_ to be… He can act like a real jerk sometimes, but he starts acting like a totally different person after a little while."

Norman watched May's face as she tried to describe the boy she'd been hanging out with for a while. Her facial expressions kept changing, but the one he found present the most was one of fondness… of yearning… of _love_. It looked like he'd lost his little girl to this unexpected turn of events. He'd sigh, letting her go and smiling weakly.

"Okay, then… At least, promise me you'll be careful?"

She nodded enthusiastically, "You bet I will! I'll make sure he doesn't shoot me with any more Water Guns, even if it means sicking Blaziken on him!" She winked with that last part.

The Petalburg Gym Leader laughed, nodding before turning around and going back into the kitchen. May, however, turned around and left immediately. She didn't need any more interruptions… delays… She wanted to go see Drew right now! Even if he'll probably have some lame prank or insult waiting for her, she didn't care… as long as she could be with him.

After closing the door behind her, she started at a run toward the sidewalk, but she wound up stopping when she saw a familiar green-haired Coordinator standing there with his Flygon beside him. She smiled as she approached him, giggling and blushing lightly.

"And just how long have you two been waiting here…?"

Drew shrugged, "Three… maybe four minutes tops." He grinned devilishly, "You sure woke up early… Couldn't wait to see me that much, huh?"

May's blush brightened significantly; should she finally tell him how she feels about him? The setting was nearly perfect… The sun was rising and making the sky orangey and pink; not to mention the fact that Drew didn't seem to be in a _really_ jerk-ish mood…

Taking a deep breath, she looked up at him with light blue eyes that were dazzling in the sunrise light, "A-actually…"

Drew blinked, a faint blush tinting his own cheeks as he watched her, urging her to go on with his eyes full of hope. _Is she going to…?_

She bit her lip, still trying to decide whether or not to tell him. What if he didn't feel the same way? That talk with her mom came to mind… but what if she was wrong? What if Drew really gave roses to all of his 'just-friends'? She could ruin their friendship… or worse…

She could lose _him_.

She shook her head abruptly, putting on her usual 'I Deny It All!" mask, "It's nothing! And _no_, I didn't miss you in the least; where did you get that idea, hm? Maybe it's _you_ who's been missing me, then! You were the one waiting out here for me!"

The boy scoffed, "Didn't think you'd want to walk all that way to the Gym again… Knowing you, you'd probably get tired and wind up napping under the tree the moment you get there!"

May growled at him, only earning herself a smirk. He went on to say, "I'm right, aren't I?"

"Can we just go already!? I thought we were going to practice for the contest together!" she pouted, folding her arms.

"Alright, alright…" Drew agreed, getting onto his Flygon's back and motioning for her to do the same, "Hop on."

May stared for a moment, a bit freaked. She tried twice to get a hold of herself and get on behind him, but she couldn't do it! After a moment, the boy got annoyed and jumped off.

"_Today_, please!"

"Hold on, damn it! It's not every day that I have to ride on a Pokémon's back, y'know! I just… kinda don't know how to get on it, that's all." She went from a loud shout to an awkward whisper, obviously gaining embarrassment.

Drew suppressed the urge to laugh at her; had she seriously never ridden on a Pokémon's back before? Shaking his head, he walked up behind her and put his hands at her waist. He could feel her freeze beneath his touch, her muscles going tense.

"Wh-what the hell're you doing!?" she cried in surprise as he lifted her up.

"What does it look like I'm doing? If you don't know how to get on my Flygon, I'm gonna have to put you on it!" he replied, setting her down on his Pokémon's back before getting on in front of her, "Now, you might want to hold onto something…"

May glared at him, "Well, there's not much else to hold onto other than _you_."

"Not quite… You could always hold onto Flygon's tail, so you won't fall off. But then again, you'd probably fall off because of grabbing it… Nevermind, you're right."

She stuck her tongue out at him even though she knew he couldn't see. Slipping her arms around his waist, she held onto him there before mumbling audibly.

"You've _always_ got to have the last word, don't'cha?"

"Well, of course!" he replied, smirking at her question. He then commanded his Flygon to Fly. After a few seconds, they'd taken off into the air and were now heading off toward the Petalburg Gym, or more specifically, the back of the Gym.

The wind blew gently at their clothes and hair, causing both to flap around a lot. If Flygon had gone flying faster, the wind would have blown at them wildly, but they were flying pretty slow… Wonder if there was a reason for this?

"So… May." Drew began, not turning his head, but waiting for May to acknowledge that she heard him.

"Hm?"

He turned his head slightly, just so he could see her out the corner of his eye, "About yesterday…" He looked down at the ground for a moment, seeing just how high up they were in the sky. It was only a good thing that it was another cloudless day, "did you… get in trouble?"

"Wha…" May blinked; what was he talking about? Oh yeah! When her dad caught them playing around and Drew's Masquerain blasted them with Water Gun! _Aagh…_ "Well, not really…" She smiled at him, "My dad was actually a little cautious about letting me come out here with you today, but… he let me, all the same."

Drew too smiled, turning his head before she could see it, though, "That's good…" he mumbled. He'd been wondering about it all day yesterday. He didn't want to be the reason why May got into trouble with her father, let alone the Gym Leader of the city!

"Don't plan on trying the same thing, Drew, because you can bet that I've been preparing myself for just about anything you can throw at me!" she said proudly.

He smirked, "Is _that_ right…? Well, we'll have to see about that, now, won't we?" He looked down to his Flygon and shouted a command, "Flygon! Use Sandstorm!"

Flygon let out a roar as sand suddenly began to blow all around them, and _only_ around them. Apparently, the Mystic Pokémon had created a sphere for the sandstorm, so that only the three of them fit inside of it.

May pouted, picking up a hand to shield her eyes. She kept one eye closed, but the sand kept getting in her way, "Damn it, Drew! Aren't _you_ having any problems in this storm?"

She felt him shrug and heard him yell over the sound of the raging storm, "I'm Flygon's trainer, so I'm used to it by now!"

She growled silently, hiding her face in his back so the sand wouldn't scratch her. Unbeknownst to her, however, she'd made Drew nervous and caused him to turn a faint shade of red. But thanks to the still-rising sun, it was well hidden. Flygon sensed the change in its master's attitude and stopped the attack, letting out a long cry as it slowly grew closer to the ground…

They landed on top of the hill, overlooking the Gym. The girl slid off and landed promptly on her rump, giving the boy a reason to laugh as he smoothly got off and returned the Pokémon to its pokéball.

"You should be more careful, May, y'might slip-up!"

She grumbled as she pushed herself back up to her feet and mocked his laughter before folding her arms and saying in a high-squeaky voice, "_'Y'might slip-up, May! Be more careful!'_"

Drew wanted to laugh again at her sad attempt of making fun of him, but kept it inside of him before taking out another pokéball, "Alright, alright… Let's get started, shall we?"

He tossed the ball up into the air, only to have the bright white light rush out of it and reveal his Masquerain. It flapped its tiny wings as it floated in the air; an obvious smile was on its face when it noticed May. Apparently, it'd enjoyed yesterday's water-fun!

"Let's do it, then!" she said, outwardly happier as she took out one of her own pokéballs and tossed it up, "C'mon out, Beautifly!"

**_Beautifly!_** It cried, sparkles flying about all around it as it appeared. It soared up to Masquerain, squeaking several times and flying around in circles around it. There seemed to be an out-of-the-ordinary red mark above its long mouth.

May tilted her head in confusion, "Huh? What's wrong with my…"

Drew was just as surprised as she was, but he just smirked and flicked his bangs, turning this into a way to mess with her, "You seriously don't get it? Come on, May, you can do better than that…"

She thought about it for a moment, still watching as her Butterfly Pokémon danced around his motionless Masquerain. It was then that it clicked.

"Does my Beautifly like your Masquerain!?"

"Bingo! You win a cookie!"

"Cookie!? Where!!" May exclaimed, looking around with stars in her eyes. She'd actually forgotten all about breakfast again, although, she'd been planning on grabbing some after practicing. Her stomach, however, had no intention of going along with her plan.

The green-haired Coordinator shook his head, "Don't you know sarcasm when you hear it? Or will it take you a while to realize _that_, too?"

"Shut up! Let's just practice already…" she backed away from him and folded her arms, "What exactly are we gonna be practicing, anyway? Battling?"

"Well, about that…" he began, putting his hands into his pockets and looking up at the sky, "I was thinking maybe we could try a Combination Appeal. You know, like when two Pokémon are partnered up and have to Appeal together."

_Partnered… Hmm… That's ringing a bell, but I can't remember why…_ May thought, but she shrugged it off. Nodding at his request, she looked over to her now-calm Beautifly. She smiled at it and motioned for it to come over to her. It obeyed and landed on her head, chirping brightly.

"Okay, then, Drew! What kind of Combination Appeal should we do? Between Beautifly and Masquerain, it's bound to be something breezy!"

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May smiled as their Pokémon finally managed to pull off a routine Drew had come up with without any mistakes. She jumped up, her hands in the air as her Beautifly flew over to her and started fluttering about.

She giggled excitedly, "Great job, Beautifly!"

Drew merely flicked his bangs, his eyes closed and a blank look on his face, "Well done, Masquerain. I guess that'll do." He didn't sound all that satisfied with how well they'd done, but in actuality, he was quite impressed at how well Masquerain and Beautifly worked together. However, he, being the haughty guy that he was, decided to play it cool in front of May.

The said-female Coordinator pouted as she approached him and his Masquerain, her Beautifly on her head again. She stared at him through determined eyes, and he stared back with an eyebrow raised.

"Can I help you?" he asked.

"You're so hard to please! What's wrong with you? Masquerain did great out there, and all you can say is that you _'guess that'll do'_?!" She turned to face Masquerain and pulled it to her chest, hugging it gently, "You poor thing, you must be praise-starved from how Drew is so inconsiderate of your feelings!"

That hit him in a tender spot; his eyes narrowed into a glare as he shouted, "Nobody tells me how to treat my Pokémon! Especially not _you_!!" he looked to his Masquerain, "Use Gust!"

The Eyeball Pokémon made an unsure look at him, but pulled itself out of the girl's grasp and used Gust. The whirling of winds caused her to become elevated in the air, bringing her up to the top of the small twister.

"Hey!! Let me down, Drew!!"

The boy put a finger to his chin, looking as if he were thinking about it. He, however, shook his head, "Naa… Maybe later."

"This is not funny, Drew!!" she cried, holding her hands reflexively to her chest as she wondered if he was just going to drop her out of spite. It was then that she had an idea. Her brilliant blue eyes looked over to her Butterfly Pokémon, "Beautifly! Use Gust!"

The green-haired Coordinator turned to see Beautifly just before it pulled off the attack. He too was brought up into the air and up to the other's height. He scowled at her.

"What's the big idea?"

"Hmm… None really, all I did was copy you." She pulled down her eye a little and stuck her tongue out at him, "So, take _that_!"

He then lost the frown and smirked at her; she could tell that this wasn't good.

"U-uhm… D-Drew? Why're you—"

"Masquerain, use Water Gun!"

"NO, NO, N—AAAHH—_Glub, glub, glub_!!" she wound up getting sprayed by the powerful stream of water, but was surprisingly not thrown off the twister. Once the attack was done, her hair was hanging low and dripping as she stared at her training partner.

Drew laughed again; May would always be an easy target… He blinked once he calmed down, seeing a mischievous look in the girl's eye. He didn't bother asking, because he knew he'd get shot at by something.

"Beautifly, stop using Gust!"

His eyes went wide, if the Gust was to come to a halt… The winds suddenly became level again with the natural wind, and he fell to the ground, landing heavily on his back with a loud **THUD!** He sat up slowly, rubbing his back in an attempt to rid himself of the painful sore that had just now arisen. He glared up at May with a smirk.

"You, too, Masquerain!"

Again, the same attack came to a stop, but the girl seemed to expect this. She landed lightly on her feet, her arms folded as she watched him with a smile and a wink, "I was ready for that one! I'm not like you, Drew."

"Hmph…" he mumbled, getting up to his feet and dusting his shoulder off a bit, "You're right; you're _not_ like me. I'm way smarter and way better-looking."

"Why you—!" she yelled, running toward him and jumping up in an attempt to pounce on him.

The boy stared at her; what the hell?! He easily caught her, but with what little weight she _did_ have, he wound up falling backward. Unfortunately, he'd been standing near the curve of the hill, so they ended up rolling down its side.

"Get off'a me!" Drew could be heard shouting.

"Not a chance!" May shouted back.

Once they made it all the way down the hill, they were still rolling, trying to see who could top who. May kept on trying to stay on top, but of course, with her lightweight body, it wasn't a very easy process.

Drew easily topped her after a moment or two, pinning her down by the shoulders and staring down at her with a smirk on his face. He then noticed their position for the first time, a light blush painting his cheeks and his smirk disappearing into a tiny 'o'.

He was on top of May… his knees were on either side of her waist and he held her down at her shoulders. His emerald eyes looked to her bright sapphire ones, only to cause his whole body to freeze. His heart was pounding and he didn't know what to do… no, he couldn't _do_ anything!

May looked back up at him, noticing the reddish tint to his face. She blinked, watching his green hues stare into hers. Her stomach felt… _strange_, to say the least. It felt like there were several tiny Beautiflies fluttering around inside of it. She gulped silently, feeling the heat rush to her own face. _What's going on?_ She thought, finding herself unable to look away from him.

The green-haired Coordinator felt a sudden weight begin to slowly push him down toward her, her face getting closer and closer to his. His eyelids drooped a little, but they stayed open as he watched her own eyelids slide shut. So, she really wanted this, too? Maybe she did like him, after all? He mentally shrugged; _only one-way to find out._

His lips lightly brushed against her feather-soft ones. Even from just that slight touch, he felt as if he were flying through the air. His heart was pounding in his ears, literally shouting at him to _'KEEP GOING!!'_ His own eyes slipped closed as he was about to give in to his heart's command, but then there was a loud **WHOOSH!** sound from the hill.

The girl immediately shoved him off of her, sitting up and looking up at the hill. The boy landed on his back again, weakly getting back up to sit as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Hey! What the hell was _that_ for?!"

May had no time to answer, or to blush in embarrassment, because she heard the cries of their beloved Bug-type Pokémon in distress. She scrambled to her feet, snatching the other's wrist and pulling him along with her back up the huge hill. They stopped, seeing a Murkrow Pecking at Beautifly and Masquerain. Whenever it Pecked one, the other tried to attack, but the smart Murkrow would glide out of the way and the attack would wind up hitting the ally.

"Where'd that Murkrow come from?" Drew asked, a confused look on his face.

May had a frightened look on her face; this was just like last time! She looked from right to left, to the trees and the bushes. If that Murkrow was here, then that had to mean that that girl was there somewhere!

"But… where…?"

Drew looked to May out the corner of his eye; what was she looking for? He shrugged; he had to somehow save their Pokémon! He looked to Masquerain, watching as it was beginning to get angry that it couldn't help Beautifly, let alone itself.

"Masquerain, use Agility to get out of Murkrow's reach and then use Gust!"

**_Mas!_** It chirped, immediately disappearing out of the Dark Bird's sight, giving it more time to pick on poor Beautifly. Masquerain, however, was no longer in danger's way. He conjured up a huge version of the Gust attack it'd used earlier on May. This one blew straight toward Murkrow and Beautifly.

**_Mur? KROW!!_** The Murkrow cried as it stared at the whirl of wind coming straight for it. Beautifly took this chance to get out of the way, weakly flying through the air to its beloved trainer. Murkrow turned around and flew out of there, as well, but toward the woods.

"Beautifly, use Morning Sun!" May commanded, watching as her little Butterfly Pokémon tried to fly back into the air from her arms.

**_Beau…_** It said weakly, closing its eyes and beginning to glow brightly. Once the golden light disappeared, it flew back into the air and waited for another command.

"Follow that Murkrow! It went that way!" the female Coordinator said, pointing toward the fleeing Dark Bird.

It was then that she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned her head to see a worried-looking Drew, "What is it?"

"Don't you think that's a bad idea? Sending Beautifly by itself after it? It could get into another tight spot, like just now."

May blinked; she didn't think about that. She just kept thinking that she had to find that girl and find out why she kept attacking her Pokémon. Sighing in defeat, she motioned for Beautifly to forget her last command. Beautifly trilled gently as it landed on her head.

Drew watched the slightly saddened girl for a moment, but he grinned slightly, "C'mon, then. We've done enough for today. I'll take you home."

She nodded, returning her Pokémon to its pokéball. The other did the same with his Masquerain before releasing his Flygon. He was about to board his Dragon Pokémon, but then he remembered what'd happened earlier. His grin turned into a wide smirk as he looked over his shoulder to the girl.

"Do you need some help getting on again?"

May pouted, "No thank you! I think I can get on by myself now. Hmph…"

He merely chuckled as he got on, looking to her as she got on behind him. Her arms encircled his waist in an attempt to stay steady. He suppressed a blush by shaking his head and trying to ignore the strange feeling he was getting from her touch.

"Let's go, Flygon!"

**_Raa!_** It cried as it took off at its quickest speed. They were in front of May's house in less than five minutes.

Just to be polite, Drew got off first, and then helped her off. The blush he'd tried to keep in earlier was beginning to rise again as he walked her to the door. They faced each other for a moment, both their faces very red.

"So? You brought me home already… You can go now…" she tried to say in a matter-of-fact kind of voice, but it came out a little quiet and embarrassed.

"Heh, I guess you're right… for the first time today." He said, grinning again with a wily look in his slightly narrowed eyes.

"Hey, I was right _lots_ of times today!!"

He took out a bright red rose from his pocket, and it didn't even look like it'd been crushed or anything. It looked like he'd just picked it, just for her. May calmed down, taking the rose and staring at it with her blush reddening again. Her brilliant blue eyes looked to his green ones for a moment.

"Th-thank you…" she said meekly.

Drew smiled gently, watching her with a fond look before flicking his bangs, "I'll get going now… See you around, May."

With that said, he turned around and left on the back of his Flygon. May watched him leave, a shy smile upon her lips. Shaking her head, she turned around and entered her house, closing the door behind her and leaning back against it. A sigh escaped her, a dreamy look apparent on her face.

"Drew…"

* * *

**Emerald's Extra Notes:**

Awww! Wasn't that kyute? LoL! That's going to be the only little fluffy part in this fic for a while, but be aware, this **is** still a Contestshipping Fic, so there _are _lots of moments between Drew and May! Teehee...

How about a few more Reviews now? LoL! Give me lots and lots of Reviews, and I'll post up the next chapter... of which I am still holding hostage! BWAHAAHAA! xD! I'm holding Chapters 7 through 11 hostage, now what are you Readers gonna do about it? ;D?

Until Next Time!


	7. 07: Moment Together & Contest Start

**Disclaimer:** Yup... Here we go again. I do _not_ own Pokémon, though one of my few Dreams is to become a person who works for Satoshi Tajiri! Haahaa! I'd love to work for the creator of this world-wide show/game!

**Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:**

Guess what, Readers? I STILL HAVEN'T FINISHED WRITING CHAPTER 12!! --diez-- I just felt like I was holding out too long, _again_. Good news is, though, that I've written 5 pages of the 12th Chapter! And I'm still writing it with the ideas flowing! X3! So no worries, I'll keep going!

Oh yeah, and I also haven't been writing much at Chapter 12 because we had our state test, the TAKS test. We took 4 of them: Math, Reading, Science, and Social Studies. And my guess is that I'm gonna fail at least one of them. XD!! Anyway, I've been getting really stressed out because of them and because I keep getting in trouble with my mom. If none of you know how strict my mother is, then I'll tell you this: She Does NOT Like it When I Use the Computer. Whenever she notices me just using the computer, not even Online, she yells at me to get off and do something like wash the dishes or the furniture, and blah... I've gone on long enough; I need to keep working on Chapter 12 before Mom gets home!

**Key:**

" " Dialogue

_Thoughts and Emphasis_

**_Pokémon Speech_**

**Onomatopoeia**

Taahaa! Let's get the show on the road! SERIOUSLY!

**

* * *

**

**: Fragment No. 07 :**

**_A Moment Together and_**

**_The Beginning of the Contest_**

May was panting as she finally began running in her neighborhood. Normally, she would've just walked and been home in about 15, maybe 20 minutes tops. Today, however, she'd been practicing very hard with her Pokémon and been doing a little exercising for herself! Although, she was starting to think that exercising wouldn't help her… She was, as Drew had put it, _'as light as a balloon.'_ She sighed as she finally stopped at her porch, sitting down at her doorstep and putting her hands behind her.

Her eyes stared out toward the street, as if waiting for something to happen. When nothing did, she finally calmed herself down and pushed herself back up to her feet. She let out a silent cry as she fell forward; her legs felt like jelly! Maybe she went a little overboard with the exercising… Her arms were also feeling numb, so she found it hard to move them out in front of her to block her collision with the walkway. Her eyes shut instantly, waiting for the impact.

It was then that she heard the sound of running footsteps and a loud grunt as she landed on top of a soft… _someone_. She opened one eye to see what'd happened, only to see that she was now lying on top of her green-haired Coordinator rival. Her eyes went wide as a blush deepened on her already red cheeks.

"Dr-Drew? What're you doing here…?"

The boy slowly sat up, pulling her up with him. He grinned at her, flipping his bangs, "I was in the neighborhood and decided to come see you! You wouldn't believe the surprise I had when I saw you running; are you trying to lose what little weight you have? I can only guess that you're trying to be like a Hoppip."

May clenched her fists in her lap, but she couldn't feel it, "Am not! I just felt like it, all right? You don't have to have a reason to run, do you?"

Drew thought about for a moment, but shrugged, "Naa… but most people do. Anyway, you think you can get up without falling, or do you need help again?"

"Again? What're you talking about, _again_?" she snapped, but then she remembered yesterday morning. She'd needed his help to get onto Flygon's back, "Oh, that…"

The other smirked, chuckling quietly, "You really are an airhead, aren't you?"

"Hey!! That's mean!" she pouted again, trying to push herself up. It didn't work, so she tried to pull herself up. Again, it didn't work. Now, she wanted to cry, "I can't move!"

The other just shook his head, getting up and then picking her up bridal-style. This immediately made the girl start to panic. Her arms suddenly came alive and clamped themselves around his neck.

"_Meep_! Don't drop me, Drew!!" she cried, looking up at him with a slightly unsure look.

Drew stared at her for a moment; she looked like a cute little kid being picked up for the first time. It'd been one of the things that'd drawn him to her… All his fan girls always tried to be cool in front of him, hoping to impress him, but she hadn't. She was just being herself, and she herself was a very beautiful soul. He smacked his thoughts away and asked her.

"Is the door open already, or do I have to search your pockets for a key?"

"I-it's open…" she mumbled quietly, finally calming down but still blushing wildly.

He bent down a little so he could turn the doorknob while still holding the girl in his arms, and pushed it open. Walking in, he looked around and found it to be a small house, but cozy enough for a family to live in.

"So… which room's yours?"

May's eyes looked over to the oh-so-familiar white-painted door that had a Beautifly Keychain hanging around the doorknob, "Over there."

Drew repeated the process and entered the very white-and-red room. Every bit of furniture in her room had a vase on it… that had many red roses settled in them. He blinked at the sight.

The girl bit her lip, _Oh-no! I forgot about those! Oh, he's going to think I like him now!—But wait, I _do_ like him! Ack, but I can't let him know that!!_ "U-uhm…"

The boy found that she'd noticed this little detail, as well, but he decided to ignore it in order to avoid further awkward… ness.

"Nice room." He said, smirking down at her, "I take it that red's your favorite color?"

"Y-yeah…" she replied, gulping and blushing brighter, "Can you put me down now…?"

"On the floor?" he asked, his smirk widening.

"On the _bed_, you smart ass!"

Drew laughed, walking over to her bed and setting her down gently on it. He took one last look around before closing his eyes and turning around, "I guess I'll get going now, seeing as you're a bit out of commission."

He didn't even take four steps away from the bed before he heard a shy voice call for him.

"Drew?" He turned around to look at her, watching her look anywhere but at him, "W-would you stay? For a little while? My parents aren't home right now and I kinda don't wanna be stuck here alone."

He couldn't help grinning at her request, so he took a chair from a nearby desk and set it at the side of her bed. He sat down in it backwards so he could face her, leaning his arms on the back of the chair.

"I can stay for a little while, but not forever, alright?" he grinned, waiting for her to try to say a comeback, but he got none. He just watched her nod timidly, "So, then… wanna talk about something? Or am I supposed to just sit here and die of boredom?"

May sighed, trying to keep her anger down, though, an anger cross had already popped into view on her head, "Maybe I _should_ just let you die…"

"Heh, in that case, I'll leave."

She frowned at him, looking down at her motionless arms. They felt and looked like limp noodles. Shaking her head, she looked back up at him and began to speak again.

"Since… tomorrow's the contest, I would've thought that you'd be off training. Why would you come to see me? Even if you were just 'in the neighborhood.'"

The other seemed to get nervous automatically; he couldn't tell her that he'd been watching her since she left the Petalburg Gym's backyard! He decided to laugh at this, but it came out embarrassed.

"I don't know… Maybe it's the fact that I like to piss you off?" he regained his composure and smirked, causing the girl to get annoyed. But he then added, "Or maybe… it's because I wanted to wish you luck for tomorrow."

Now _that_ caught her attention. She blinked, staring at him. Her confused look satisfied him to no end, so he felt that now would be the time to take his leave. Pushing himself back up to his feet, he pulled out another rose from his jacket and held it for a moment. He smirked again at her.

"I never realized how many of these I'd given you… I _would_ stop, but it's like they say: Old habits die hard, right?"

He slipped it into the vase on the girl's nightstand before giving her a two-finger salute and letting himself out.

The girl smiled, looking up at her ceiling, "Now I can't wait for tomorrow!"

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

**BEEP! BEEP!! BEEP!!!**

May groaned, turning over on her side and pulling the covers over her head.

**BANG! BANG!! BANG!!!**

"May, sweetie! You need to get up! It's already 11:30 AM!" her mother's voice called over the locked door.

The teenager just threw one pillow at her clock, causing it to fall off the nightstand and smash on the floor, and then threw another at the door to make her parent shut up.

"Just five more minutes…" she mumbled, hugging her last pillow close and giggling drunkenly before whispering dreamily, "Aww… Drew…"

"May, if you don't get up now, you're going to miss your contest! It starts in about twenty-nine minutes!" Norman's voice shouted.

May shoved the pillow away from her as she sat bolt straight up. Her head spun to look to her glass pokéball clock, only to see it smashed on the floor. She then looked to the digital Skitty wall clock above her door in time to see it change from 11:31 to 11:32 AM.

She let out an ear-piercing scream and several crashes could be heard inside her room. Norman and Caroline backed away from the door, staring at it and then at each other with worry.

"Are you okay in there?" Caroline asked.

The door swung open to show their daughter hopping around her room and trying to pull her blue-and-white shorts all the way up her waist while putting her red medium-sleeved jacket on correctly.

"Calm down! You have plenty of time! It's not much of a run as it is a walk to Route 104." Her father said, sweatdropping at his daughter's silly rushing skills.

May stopped in her tracks, staring at her Gym Leader father for a moment before letting go of her jacket and slowly pulling her shorts up to cover over her protruding white panties. Closing her door to gain some privacy, she took a deep breath and went on to straighten her jacket over her short dark blue tube-top.

She looked to the mirror at herself and stared at her messed-up hair. A smile curled on her lips; she seriously needed to take things at her own pace. What would she have done to her hair if she were still in that rushing frenzy? Picking up a brush, she combed out at her hair, her eyes wandering to the vase beside the mirror. It held many of the roses that Drew had sent to her.

Her smile brightened as she thought about him; he'd actually stayed with her for a while yesterday… and their meeting had almost nothing to do with their Pokémon! It was just the two of them, although it didn't last very long. Shaking her head, she picked up her bandana and tied it around her head. Giving the mirror one last look, she turned around and grabbed the dandelion-colored waist pack that held her pokéballs before finally exiting her room.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

After a huge breakfast provided by her mother, she headed out toward Route 104 to the west of Petalburg City. A huge grin was on her face as she kept telling herself, _I'm gonna win! We've been doing so well in the practices that we're bound to!_

Once she finally left the city limits of Petalburg, she blinked as a large group of people just standing around came into view. A flash of familiar bright green hair caught her eye, and she was immediately filled with happiness. Good ol' Drew! He was always early for the contests, so thank the Lord that this one was no different. She was about to walk over to him, but then someone just _had_ to get in her way.

"Well, hello there, Hon! I see you decided to get dressed today!"

She came to a stop and turned to her left to see Harley watching her with a devious smile on his face. This freaked her out because she was very well acquainted with that weird smile; it meant that he had a plan up his sleeve to try and get rid of her.

Her eyebrow twitched at the comment he'd made about her, a glare forming in her eyes at him, "HEY!! You woke me up that one time so you saw me in my pajamas! Besides, what the hell were you doing with a hammer near my house, anyway?"

The purple-haired man merely laughed, having no intention of answering her question. He wagged a finger at her, "Sorry, May, but I don't feel like answering any questions today." He looked out the corner of his eye and he saw Drew looking around, as well, "Well, it looks like your boy-toy is here! Did you wind up letting him stay at your house after all?"

The younger Coordinator tried to keep her temper down, but that last question set her off immediately, "No, he _didn't_! And do you know _why_, Harley? It's because he can take care of himself and he doesn't like me in the least! So get your head out of the goddamn clouds and shut it up!!"

Her shouting caused a hush to befall the crowd waiting for the contest to begin. Everybody, including Drew, was staring at her and Harley. Several guys pointed at Harley and began to laugh aloud.

"Dude! You just got told off by a chick!" one snorted.

The Cacturne-dressed man was frozen with embarrassment, his face flushed dark red with fury. His fists were clenched tightly as he growled at the girl who'd just humiliated him in front of all the very best Coordinators in Hoenn. He quickly turned around and sprinted out of the crowd and back toward the town, mumbling how much he hated May and how badly he wanted to get back at her all the while.

May, however, took a deep breath and stared down at the ground. Small droplets of tears had collected at the sides of her eyes; the words that'd left her mouth only but a few moments ago had just started to sting. She didn't know why it made her heart ache painfully… She knew that it wasn't true… was it? Drew had come to visit her, after all! And he'd asked her to practice with him that other day…

"May?"

She looked up, bright sapphire eyes connecting with light emerald ones. A light tint of red coated her cheeks as she felt his hand seize her by the arm and draw her toward him. She blinked, her head falling to his shoulder as his arms encircled her waist and held her close. Her eyes slowly grew wider; what was… he doing?

"Are you okay? What'd Harley say?" he asked, concerned.

Was he seriously worried about her? Well, he certainly had reason to be, considering that Harley always had some strange plot or plan to get rid of her. She gulped, shaking her head against his jacket and feeling the softness of the fabric. _So soft…_ She thought.

"I-I'm fine… he was just teasing me, that's all." She tried to explain. His teasing sure hit her hard… She didn't know why, though. Could it be that she'd actually wanted him to stay over? With Max gone, they _did_ have an extra room… She blushed lightly at the thought, shaking her head furiously again to clear it away. Pulling herself away from him, May cleared her throat and looked down the road of Route 104.

**Neeeeigh!**

"Hyah!"

**NEEEEIGH!!**

She blinked; something was coming…

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Harley stomped on the ground several times, standing around behind the Petalburg Gym, "Who does that girl think she is? How dare she embarrass me like that! I swear, I'll get her back… Somehow!"

**Whoosh!** The wind began to pick up, and a Murkrow was suddenly visible. It sat on a branch in a tree atop the hill, watching him. The man watched it back for a moment before it cawed and flew passed him to a girl around his age that was standing near the forest of more trees.

"Oh, and who might you be?" he asked, folding his arms and trying to look intimidating, "Look, this isn't the time, so I'd warn you not to come too close."

The girl's golden brown hair blew in the wind, a tiny grin forming on her lips and standing out quite a bit on her pale white face. Her eyes were hidden by the shadow of her hat, and one hand was in the pocket of her black jean jacket. She held her other arm out, allowing her Murkrow to perch on it.

She then pulled out two pokéballs from that pocket… but they weren't just any pokéballs. These were black on the top and red on the bottom, a red-colored teardrop was the insignia on the black part. Her mouth began to move, but nobody could hear what she said other than Harley himself.

'_These will help you fulfill your wish.'_

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"Welcome, Coordinators, Trainers, and Pokémon alike! To the beginning of the Extreme Pokémon Contest!" the orange-haired MC Lillian called from the top of a portable stage to the Coordinators standing all around watching her, "I _do_ hope that everybody got here all right! Unlike myself and the judges, who had to get here by Ponyta- and Rapidash-back!"

She turned a bit to motion toward the many Ponyta and Rapidash horse Pokémon they'd had to ride to get there on time. She laughed, winking to the audience, "Alright! Now here's our very own Mr. Contesta to explain the rules of this Extreme Pokémon Contest!"

Everyone clapped as the director of all Pokémon Contests came up onto the stage and took the microphone from Lillian, "Greetings, Everyone! As you know, this will be a Pokémon Contest like no other! And I'm sure that many of you are wondering why we chose to hold it here between Petalburg City and Rustboro City! Does anyone have the slightest clue of what we've been doing for the past while?"

Harley jumped up from the crowd, having returned, and waved his arms wildly, "Me! Pick me!!"

"Yes, you in the Cacturne outfit."

He scoffed for a moment before regaining his usual fake-friendliness attitude and replied, "I've been hearing that there's been weird things going on in the Petalburg Woods! Would that have anything to do with this?"

Mr. Contesta smoothed out his red suit and nodded, "You're correct, Sir! Though, there is no Contest Hall in Petalburg or Rustboro, there is now a large luxurious one hidden away inside of the Petalburg Woods!"

Everyone in the crowd began to whisper and mutter among themselves; exactly, what's supposed to happen now?

The purple-clad MC took the microphone back from the director and spoke, "And now, here are the instructions for the first part of the Extreme Pokémon Contest! You all have until 9:00 tonight to find the Contest Hall inside of the woods and register, so if you don't make it on time, you're disqualified. You're not allowed to have outside help, though! This is purely about you, and _only_ about you! If you leave a friend behind, then tough luck!"

"Now, it's 11:59 PM. We'll start once my watch hits 12:00, so count with me, People!"

20… 19… 18… 17…

May turned to face Drew, who in turn looked to her. She made a determined look at him, and he gave her one of his cocky _'I'm-So-Much-Better-Than-You'_ smirks.

13… 12… 11… 10…

"So, then, will I meet you at the finish line, May?" Drew asked, tilting his head a bit and raising an eyebrow.

8… 7… 6…

She nodded, "You know it! I won't let anything stand in my way!"

5… 4…

His smirk melted into a warm smile, and she too smiled back. Their moment came to an end when everyone began to scream out.

3…! 2…! 1…!

"Let's get busy!" Lillian exclaimed, throwing her free hand up into the air to signal the beginning of the Race.

All the Coordinators dashed for the Petalburg Woods at the end of the route, including May and Drew. The two rivals looked to each other out the corner of their eye before running ahead of the other Coordinators.

It was _on_, now…

* * *

**Emerald's Extra Notes:**

LoL! I'm gonna continue to hold Chapters Hostage until I finish Chapter 13. Well... try to, at least. XP!! Review now, ya? I like your Reviews!


	8. 08: Harley's Plot & Time's Up!

**Disclaimer:** Hello, there! May I help you? ... You want to know if I own Pokémon yet? Sorry, nope. I don't own any of the characters, Pokémon, or settings in this fic. Only thing I own is the fabulous plot, of which my fabulous Plot Lopunny has been helping me with!

**Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:**

Alrighty, sorry for the long wait! I still hadn't finished Chapter 12 until TODAY! I actually JUST finished it about 5 minutes ago. How? And why? Well, it's a long story... but to make it short: Mom has been keeping me busy with shit she thinks is right but it be_yond_ wrong, and I've been kept away for the computer for way too long.

Anyway, school's almost out! And you know what _that_ means! -Well, no... you don't... That means I have to be getting ready for my Quinceanera and going to all these weird Camp things before I head out to High School. Actually, I got accepted into this place called Early College High School, so... I'm gonna be kept busy... again. XP

Well, enough about my problems! Let's go on, shall we?

**Key:**

" " Dialogue

_Thoughts or Emphasis_

**_Pokémon Speech_**

**Onomatopoeia**

Yaay! Fragment #08 has been added, and Fragment #12 has been finished!

LET'S CELEBRATE!!

* * *

**: Fragment No. 08 :**

**_Harley's Plot and Time's Up!_**

May ran on through the entrance of the Petalburg Woods. Several of the more cocky or powerful Coordinators were probably going to pick on the first competitors that came into their sights by battling them. She shivered; _I sure hope that I won't be one of them!_

"Hey, May!"

_Spoke too soon…_ She thought, wanting to cry. She stopped and turned around, only to see a Coordinator she'd never met before. A confused look graced her features; how'd he know her name? Wait a minute… Who _didn't_ know her name nowadays? Tilting her head to the side, she watched the boy stop a few feet away from her with a pokéball in his hand and a smirk on his tan face. A light breeze began to blow, making his spiky dark red hair sway a bit in the wind.

"I challenge you to a battle!" he declared, a bright sparkle in his light green eyes.

The girl just sighed, taking out her own pokéball and nodding, "Fine, then. But, who're you?"

The boy picked up his free hand and flashed her a peace sign while smiling brilliantly, "The name's Fordé Sourentis! Remember it, because you'll be hearing it a lot during the Contest!"

She merely shrugged, throwing out her pokéball to reveal her Tiny Turtle Pokémon. She hadn't used it in battle for a long while, so she thought this would be a good time to get it back into shape.

Fordé made a hesitant look once he saw the Squirtle appear on their so-called 'battlefield,' but he regained composure and threw the one he held up into the air. In a burst of bright white light, a Flareon had appeared before him.

_**Flaaa!**_ The Fire Eeveelution exclaimed, watching Squirtle through blazing black eyes. May's little Water-type Pokémon flinched a bit before the battle began.

"Flareon, use Smog!"

Flareon opened its mouth, letting a stream of blackish-purple gas pour out of its mouth all around them. May made sure to cover her mouth before sending out a command.

"Squirtle, use Withdraw and Rapid Spin!"

_**Squirtle, Squirt!**_ It piped, jumping up and pulling itself into its shell. It then began to spin around rapidly at a swift speed, blowing the Smog attack back toward Flareon and its trainer. It was _they_ who were coughing now, thanks to the poisonous gas.

"Now, use Bubble!"

Fordé was trying this best to tell his Pokémon to dodge, but all he could do was continue to cough constantly. Without a command issued, Flareon was forced to take the attack and gain major damage due to weakness.

"Alright, Squirtle, let's finish this up with Water Gun!"

The tiny turtle Pokémon paused for a moment to halt the attack of bubbles, but then reopened its mouth to allow a powerful stream of water to shoot out toward its weakened opponent. Fordé made an alarmed look, swatting at the rest of the gas around him and forcing himself to cough out a command.

"Use Protect!"

_**Flaareon!**_ It barked as a bright green shield enveloped it, protecting it from the oncoming attack. The redhead looked over to May, hoping to see a loss of confidence on her face, but he was met with a smirk.

"Change to Ice Beam!"

The water that Squirtle had been sending out suddenly began to freeze over as the aqua-colored Ice attack came into contact with Flareon's Protect. The ice began to cover over the shield, trapping the Fire-type in a freezing prison.

"No! Flareon!!" Fordé called out, taking out an Ice Heal and spraying it all over the icicle that his Pokémon was imprisoned in.

"I win already, Fordé, so I'm going to leave. I'll see you at the Hall, okay?" May said, an unsure look on her face. If she wasn't being timed, she would've stayed to see how his Pokémon was doing, but things weren't always the way she wanted them to be.

The boy looked up from his slowly defrosting Flareon and nodded, "Right… See you there."

"Return, Squirtle!" May commanded, her Pokémon being sucked back into its pokéball. She then turned around and ran off in an attempt to cover the ground she would have gone had she not been interrupted.

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Harley looked around the small clearing he now stood in, his arms folding as he pinpointed which direction he'd seen the Contest Hall in. An evil smirk came to his lips when he looked down at his spiky Cacturne watch; it read **8:00 PM**. Had it really been that long already? Time definitely flew when you were trying to ruin somebody else's life!

He laughed maniacally, pulling out one of the two pokéballs that the mysterious girl from behind the Petalburg Gym gave him. He stared at it from a moment before tossing it up into the air, releasing it.

It appeared behind a tree, bright red eyes glowing demonically from the shadows of that tree. Harley approached the tree, but stopped a few feet away.

"It's almost show-time, Dearie! Are you ready?"

He heard a grunt in reply and the moving up-and-down of those eyes as the huge head that held them nodded. The purple-haired Coordinator's ear twitched when he looked out the corner of his eye, his smirk widening.

"She's here…"

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May pouted as she shoved her way through a bunch of prickly bushes, tripping over a root and falling face-first to the ground. A bit of dirt clung to her face as she weakly pushed herself back up to sit on her knees.

"It's already been eight hours since the Contest started, and I don't think I'm anywhere close to the Hall…" she could feel her eyes beginning to water, "I can't believe that I'm going to lose before I even start!"

"Aww… Are you okay, Hon?"

The girl's tears immediately disappeared as she looked up, only to see fake worry on her older rival's face, "H-Harley?"

"Well, of course! Who else would still be out here?" he replied, his hands on his hips, "Don't you know? Everybody's waiting for you at the Hall! You're very close to the end, May!"

Her eyes went wide as she pulled herself to her feet, swaying a bit before regaining balance, "I… I _am_?"

"Yes! Now, c'mon! I'll show you the way!"

This seemed almost too good to be true!—Wait… It _was_ too good to be true. And why was Harley, of all people, saying he'd help her? After she embarrassed him that afternoon, wouldn't he be angry with her? All her hope and happiness had withered away into doubt and fright.

_What if this is another one of his tricks?_ Her face paled at the thought. Gulping, she decided to go along with him, just to see what's going on. If it really was a trap, then she'd just have to hightail it out of there as quickly as possible! _Oh, boy… That could be hard… I'm exhausted from trying to avoid all those trainers! Especially since all of them caught up to me and made me battle…_

Harley walked along the grassy path that he knew led to the clearing… where his new helper was awaiting their arrival. He smirked unnoticeably as they entered it, the wind blowing freely at them in the dim moonlight.

"Alright! It's just beyond those trees over there!" he said enthusiastically, pointing across the clearing to the bunches of trees on the other side.

It was then that two red glows became visible to the both of them. May jumped, hiding behind Harley, who was seemingly equally frightened.

"H-Harley! Wh-what the hell's _that_!?" she whispered in a high-pitched voice, emphasizing her fear.

"I—I don't know… H-hold on." He took a step forward, "H-hello? Who's there?"

A huge roar echoed through the forest, followed by a rush of freezing cold wind. May let out a scream as small pieces of sharp ice crashed into her skin and left very visible red cuts and scratches on her.

"What is this!?" she cried, picking up her arms and trying to shield herself, but then another Icy Wind began to blow at her, accompanied by several Razor Leaves on the attack. She let out another scream, louder than the other, if possible, that too echoed all over the Petalburg Woods.

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A scream… A loud, high-pitched, _familiar_ scream.

"Huh!?" the green-haired Coordinator blinked, snapping to attention as he stood by the glass doors that were the entrance and exit to the Contest Hall. He looked all around him, seeing that all the other Coordinators who had made it had heard it, as well, "What's going on…?"

He still hadn't seen May come in to register, and it was getting him very nervous. His gaze swept over the other people before meeting with the clock: **8:28 PM**. He bit his lip, hearing the scream continue to echo through the Hall; who was it? It sounded so familiar…

"It's May!!" someone shouted.

All the Coordinators turned to see a white-haired boy clad in a black, orange, and green attire. Drew recognized him to be that boy he'd seen May with at the Petalburg Gym that one day. What was his name again…? Bryan? Brandon?

"Calm down, Brendan! I'm sure she's fine!" another said.

_Oh, yeah! He's Brendan._ Drew thought before turning his eyes to Brendan's friend, a boy with seemingly golden yellow hair.

"You _heard_ it, Wally! It can only be May! She's the only one who hasn't come in yet!"

The green-haired Coordinator froze; he was right. He spun around to the door, only to see Harley reenter the building. He definitely looked proud of himself… wonder what happened? And why would he come in to register and then leave again? This guy was one seriously messed up gay ass…

"No need to fear, everyone! Harley is here!" the man with the Cacturne-attire exclaimed, striking a pose.

Drew ran up to Harley, glaring dangerously as he snatched his collar and forced him to look him in the eye, "What did you do to May?!"

Harley raised an eyebrow, easily getting out of the younger one's grasp and replying, "Oh, what ever do you mean? _I_ didn't do anything to her…"

"Like hell, you didn't! I'll bet you went out there just to throw her off!" he shouted angrily, looking back to the clock.

**8:32 PM**.

He growled, shoving Harley out of the way and running out of the Contest Hall, looking around the area.

_**Neeeeigh!**_ He grinned when he saw the Ponyta and Rapidash that the Judges and MC had been riding. They could come in handy! He ran up to a Rapidash with an urgent look on his face, "Please, Rapidash! Will you help me find my friend? She's lost out there in the woods somewhere!"

The Horse Pokémon nodded up and down immediately, hopping up on its hind legs and let out a cry before stomping its feet several times on the ground and bending down slightly to allow the teen on its back.

Drew gave it a look of gratitude before mounting it and pointing down the grassy pathway, "Let's go!"

Rapidash shot off down the way, seemingly knowing exactly where they were going. Pokémon were, after all, more in tune with nature than humans were. Drew knew this and hoped to God that it knew where May was so he could save her.

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May tried to cry out in pain as she was punched into a nearby tree by a Focus Punch attack, but her voice was failing her. She could no longer scream, call out for help, or even talk above a whisper, for that matter! Her back crashed into it, bouncing her off of the tree trunk and back to the ground. She lay on the ground, weakly trying to keep herself awake. If she fell unconscious now, what would happen to her when she woke up? Or worse… what if she never woke up again?

Her eyes were clouded with tears that fell silently down her face and watered the grass beneath her, showing just how much anguish she'd endured in a matter of over 30 minutes. She'd by now given up on the Contest… she wouldn't make it on time for the deadline.

Her blurry vision watched as the monster Pokémon that'd been attacking her finally began to approach her. She scoffed at herself mentally; _probably to check if I'm dead yet._ She should have known that Harley would try to pull something like this.

_**NEEEEEIGH!**_

"Hold on, May!! I'm coming!"

_Drew…_ She mouthed weakly, finally feeling a wave of relief come over her frightened soul. _He'll save me… I know he will!_

The said-Coordinator hopped off of the Flaming Horse's back and pointed at the foe Pokémon, "Rapidash, use Fire Spin!"

It opened its mouth and out came the huge twister of flames, engulfing the Pokémon that'd been keeping May so busy as to keep her away from the Hall for so long.

_**Abo! Abo!! Abomasnow!!**_ It roared, running around in circles and trying to put itself out. It wasn't working, though, as the snow all around it was melting and revealing the frozen tree on the inside of it.

"So, it was an Abomasnow, huh?" Drew growled, "Let's finish this up! Fire Blast!"

Rapidash ran up to the Ice/Grass-type, letting out the large five-pointed star of flames known as Fire Blast. It pushed the defending Pokémon back into the trees, only to disappear into the familiar bright red light of a pokéball.

The male Coordinator was about to go see who that Abomasnow belonged to, but he had something, or rather some_one_, else to think about. He ran to the girl's side, holding her up in his arms.

"May! May, are you okay? Say something!" he pleaded, seeing the many cuts and bruises that had accumulated all over her body. Many were bleeding badly, and even now, he was getting bloodstains on his jacket and pants. He didn't care about that, though…

"Dr…Drew…" she managed to whisper weakly, her eyes looking up at him like wet sapphires in a clear pool of water. He could see the tears she'd shed still drying on her cheeks.

Drew smiled gently, picking up one hand and wiping away her tears softly, "It'll be okay now… I'm going to take you back to the Contest Hall, okay?"

May was able to crack a tiny smile before her eyes closed and she fell deeper into his arms. He watched her fall asleep, carefully picking her up bridal-style and walking back up to the calm Rapidash he'd been riding.

"Will you help me one last time, Rapidash?"

It nodded, understanding as it bent down again, so he could put May on its back. He did so, getting on behind her and holding her close to him as they rode back to the Contest Hall.

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There were whistles and clapping as Drew reentered the Contest Hall, an unconscious May in his arms. It looked like he'd become the Hero of the Day, saving her the way he did. Several guys were congratulating him on the rescue while girls were both jealous and admiring how cute he and May looked together.

Brendan and Wally ran up to him, Brendan the first to speak, "So, you saved her, huh?"

Drew raised an eyebrow at the other's hard look, nodding, "Yeah… so?"

The white-haired trainer was about snap about how uncaring he seemed to be about the situation, when the green-haired Coordinator spoke again.

"Sorry I can't stay to chat, but I've got to get May to the infirmary…"

With that said, he turned around and ran as gently but quickly as he could without waking the sleeping girl up. Brendan and Wally watched him go.

"Y'know, I have a bad feeling about this guy…" Brendan said to his best friend.

"Really? That's weird, 'cause I got a good one!" Wally laughed, slapping a hand on the other's shoulder, "Don't worry too much about it, Brendan… You'll get your chance, sooner or later."

"Pfft… I hope sooner than later." He mumbled, turning around to head over to the Contest Stage area. Wally followed after him with a good-natured grin on his face.

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"Drew, you can go on in now." Nurse Joy said sweetly, motioning toward the door she'd just exited.

Drew nodded, walking into the room and closing the door behind him, only to see May Maple sound asleep on the bed. He smiled as he approached the girl and pulled up a chair beside her, sitting backwards in it the way he had at her house that one day.

She looked so peaceful… and happy, even in her sleep. He could see the small smile he'd seen her fall asleep with earlier in the woods, and his heart felt like it was melting. It always did, whenever he saw her smiling like that for him. His insults usually ruined their moments, but lately, he found that he'd been toning down on them a bit. The two of them were actually getting closer… and he definitely liked how it was going.

"Hmm…" she groaned, turning on her side and smiling gently, "Drew…"

He blushed, eyes wide as he watched her continue to sleep on. Was she dreaming of him? Why was she smiling so fondly? He gulped a bit, only finding himself smiling again as he reached out a hand and tenderly caressed her cheek. He could feel her leaning into his touch.

"Warm…" she mumbled unconsciously.

Heh, she _did_ seem to be thawing a bit… especially since it was a freaking Abomasnow attacking her. It must've used quite a few different Ice-type attacks on her to get her to be so freezing cold.

The girl stirred a bit, and Drew knew that she was waking up. He tried to withdraw his hand, but she caught it before he could get it even half a centimeter away. His blush became even more visible, but he turned his face away in an attempt to hide it.

"Are you awake now, Snorlax?"

_Shit! Why'd I go and say that?! Just when she woke up, too!_ He mentally kicked himself.

"Yeah, I'm awake, but I'm no Snorlax." She whispered, holding his hand back to her cheek and letting her fingers cover over his.

The feeling was new to the teenaged boy, but he could tell that he was liking it. It was now becoming a very hard problem to hide his tomato red face.

"What happened to you out there?" he asked, forcing his blush away and looking back to her face, only to see her watching him with eyes filled with unshed tears, "Oh, come on… It's over already, you don't have to cry anymore!"

May sniffled, trying to get herself to stop, but she couldn't, "I was… so scared… I didn't know what it was and I didn't see it coming, the whole time. It wouldn't let me move… and whenever I had a chance, it started blowing things at me."

Drew made a look of sympathy at her, "I see… That Abomasnow was one seriously quick-thinking Pokémon, then… unless somebody else was pulling the strings." He remembered seeing it disappear into a pokéball.

"I don't know… but Harley led me there… He said he'd take me to the Hall and—" she immediately gasped, sitting bolt straight up and letting out a painful whimper.

The green-haired Coordinator shook his head, pushing the chair away and holding the girl at her shoulder, "Calm down! That wasn't a very good idea, there, May… You're going to wind up hurting yourself again."

She turned her head to look at him, "Drew, where am I? How'd I get here, and… what _time_ is it!?"

The boy sighed, gently putting her back down to lay on the bed, "In that order… You're in the Contest Hall. I brought you back here with the help of a Rapidash, and it's about…" He looked down at the water on his right wrist, "9:20 PM. And before you ask, yes, you made the deadline. I brought you in here five minutes before and I went to register you."

May stared up at him, blinking, "You did all that… for _me_?"

"Well, of course! When Harley came into the Hall, acting all bigheaded, I knew he'd done something to you." He folded his arms, "Besides, what's the fun of entering an Extreme Pokémon Contest when your biggest rival isn't strong enough to make it to the Hall? All I did was give a little bit of assistance…"

She looked down at her folded hands in her lap, eyes a bit saddened though the tears had disappeared. _So, the only reason he brought me back here was so he could get even with me? How _nice_ of him._ She thought bitterly, sighing, _I should've known better than to think he'd actually bring me back here because he was worried._

"Hello, hello!" a person knocked on the door, opening it to reveal Nurse Joy and a Chimecho, "It took me a while to find, but I got one of the Coordinators to lend me there Chimecho!"

The pink-haired nurse approached the other side of May's bed and set the Wind Chime Pokémon down on the bed beside the patient, "Alright, Chime! Use Heal Bell!"

The friendly Chimecho smiled brightly, hopping up and down while the bell on its head began to ring soothingly. Golden waves flowed out from the bell, instantly healing all of May's wounds. She smiled, watching them all disappear. When the Heal Bell ended, she hugged the cute Pokémon.

"Thank you very much, Chimecho!"

"So, was she of good use to you, Nurse Joy?" a voice asked.

They all looked to the doorway to see a girl with long dirty blonde hair that was almost a pale brown, and dark blue eyes. Her arms were folded over her grey spaghetti-strap top as her black knee-length skirt swayed a bit with the air conditioner's cool breeze flooding into the room from the hallway.

"Oh, yes! Thank you for your help, Anissa!" Nurse Joy thanked, bowing.

The girl entered the room as Chimecho was released from May's arms, and the said-Wind Chime jumped into _her_ arms. She held it with one arm and held her right hand out to the girl in the bed.

"I'm Anissa DeMont. Pleasant to meet you, May. You gave everyone a huge scare when you didn't show up until Drew brought you back."

May blinked at Anissa, "Really?" She looked to Drew, who was blushing lightly and looking away.

"Yeah, especially this one guy… He kept on stomping around the lobby shouting about how somebody other than Drew should go help you." She put a finger to her chin as she spoke, as if trying to remember, "I don't remember his name, but I remember that his last name's Birch."

"Oh! It must've been Brendan!" May blurted, slapping her forehead, "Of course _he'd_ be worried about me…"

"Who is he? Your boyfriend?"

Drew's head turned to look at May at once, watching her and wondering what her answer would be. She didn't notice.

"Oh, no! He's one of my best friends, that's all. We grew up together, same with that guy who's always following him around. His name's Wally."

"Well, then! It looks like things will get pretty fun around here…" Anissa said, laughing as she flipped on the TV beside the door, "Watch."

The TV was showing everything that was going on at the Contest Stage down the hallway. Apparently, everyone who'd made it was supposed to make their Entrance Appeals. In other words… Show Off before the actual Judging begins.

May got out of the bed, slipping her white-and-blue gloves back on and tying her red pokéball bandana back around her head. Her arms folded as she looked to Drew and Anissa.

"What're we waiting for, then? Let's get going before it's our turn!"

* * *

**Emerald's Nonsense:**

Taahaa! What'd y'think? I know; it's hella suckier than the last chapter, but you gotta remember! I wrote this around a month or two ago. I'm working on Fragment #13 right now, yea!

Well, how about Reviewing now? Tell me what y'think? How about... I get about 70 Reviews total? I mean, that would only mean that I want **11 Reviews** ransom for the next chapter, yea? I noticed that I've been writing a _lot_ more Contestshipping moments than I thought... So, yea, the next chapter will be worth more than 11 Reviews, although, that is all I want. ;D!

HAPPY TRAILS!


	9. 09: Introductions on the Run!

**Disclaimer:** I still don't own Pokémon. BLAH!

**Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:**

Whoa... It's been over a month since I updated... Yeaz, I just HAD to update, even though I STILL haven't started Fragment #13. I have no idea what to do next! Oh well, maybe an idea will come to me while watching this huge 3-day Pokémon marathon, yea? Y'never know!

Anyway! I've just noticed that I'm kinda playing Drew a bit OOC, so please forgive me. XD! I'm not so good at being the cocky 'look-at-me-I'm-better-than-you' type. XP So bare with me on this.

**Key:**

" " Dialogue

_Thoughts & Emphasis_

_**Pokémon Speech**_

**Onomatopoeia**

In the words of Lillian... Let's Geeeeet BUSY! X3

* * *

**: Fragment No. 09 :**

**_Introductions On The Run!_**

May, Drew, and Anissa had just made it to the Contest Stage in time to see Brendan get called up.

"Now, then, who's next? Brendan Birch, that's who! Let's give him a warm welcome, everybody!" MC Lillian exclaimed, motioning toward center stage as she hopped off.

The ground all around them began to shake significantly, everyone clinging to their seats instead of clapping as they continued to watch the stage. Two Hydro Pumps were shot out at the middle of the stage, but the ground was moving them all so much that they couldn't see what Pokémon they were coming from. All they saw were two huge blue blurs.

The two Water attacks began to spin around each other in a cyclone, until Water Pulse occurred and sent the water rushing all around. Everyone sitting in the audience smiled and laughed as the water splashed them. Sparkling droplets of water flew around everywhere as the white-haired trainer stood in the middle of the stage with his arms folded and a grin on his face. His Swampert stood to his right with its arms folded as well, and a Feraligatr to his left in the same pose. The two Water-type Pokémon's backs were to Brendan as he faced the crowd.

"I'm Brendan Birch, son of Professor Birch and future Pokémon Master! Watch out, Coordinators, because battling isn't the only thing I can do!" he said confidently before bowing. Feraligatr and Swampert hopped up a bit as they used another Water Pulse, sending the water everywhere to distract everyone. When they all looked back to the stage, the three were gone.

"Wow! What a wonderful Introductory Appeal, Brendan! Now, let's see who's next on our list, shall we?" the orange-haired woman asked, looking to a clipboard in her hand, "Come on out, Anissa DeMont!"

Anissa grinned slightly, "Looks like it's my turn…" She put a hand on May's shoulder, winking, "Tell me what y'think afterwards, okay?"

She ran off behind the stage and released two Pokémon, both of which were Eeveelutions.

_**Espi!**_ Piped the Psychic-type Eeveelution, Espeon. It rubbed its cheek against Anissa's leg, watching as its sister appeared next.

_**Glaci! Glaceon!**_ The Ice-type whispered excitedly, its glossy white fur very noticeable against its bright blue ears and forehead. The 18-year-old Coordinator smiled at her only Shiny Pokémon before motioning for them to hop up onto the stage.

Espeon and Glaceon jumped up as high as they could, crying out their names as they landed on the stage.

_**Glaaaci!**_ Glaceon exclaimed, calling up a Blizzard that flew about everywhere. Snowflakes and bits of ice sparkled all around them, and then it was Espeon's turn. Its eyes began to glow brightly as it used Psychic, causing the Blizzard to come to a sudden halt.

Everyone watched as the ice and snowflakes were forced back toward the stage, as if they were being sucked back in by a vacuum cleaner. When they were all bunched together, the frozen bits of water began to spin around, creating a huge tornado Snow Storm that took up all of the stage.

May watched in awe as it finally blew up, the snowflakes falling gently all around the room as if it were actually snowing right now. Anissa now stood in the middle of the stage with her Espeon and Glaceon at either of her sides. She had one hand on her hip as she winked at the crowd, only to turn around and walk off the stage with her Pokémon behind her. Apparently, she had nothing to say.

"What a beautiful entrance! Great job, Anissa!" Lillian congratulated, looking to the clipboard again, "Now, then, let's bring out everyone's favorite Damsel-in-distress! May Maple!!"

May smiled as she passed by her new friend, earning herself a nod of encouragement. The moment she reached the back of the stage, she pulled out two pokéballs and released her two chosen Introductory Pokémon.

_**Beau!**_ Beautifly cried, appearing with its wings flared out at full-length as if stretching. In another flash of light, Leafeon had appeared beneath it. The two looked to their trainer, only to see a confident smile on her face.

"Let's get out there and do this!" she pointed out to the stage, "Beautifly, use Sunny Day! And then Silver Wind with Psychic to shape it into a heart!"

_**Beeeeautifly!**_ It exclaimed, the lights all over the stage becoming brighter and brighter. It was then that the Butterfly Pokémon began to flap its wings forth, the silvery wind flying out to center stage. Its eyes began to glow a bright blue color as it began to use Psychic, forcing the Silver Wind to curve in its place into the shape of a large silver-lined heart.

"Now, it's your turn, Leafeon! Use Razor Leaf to add to the heart!"

_**Leee!**_ The Fresh Green Pokémon hopped up into the air and began spinning in front-flip circles as several light green leaves began to shoot themselves out from it and to the silver heart in the middle of the stage. The leaves joined with the winds of Silver Wind, blowing along wherever it went, which was all around in a recurring shape.

The audience was amazed; the bright green and silver of the heart made it look absolutely lovely! Drew smirked, _It would have looked better with Petal Dance than with Razor Leaf… Kinda sad that Leafeon can't learn that attack._

"Alright, let's finish this up! Leafeon, jump onto Beautifly's back! Then Beautifly, use Morning Sun while you use Synthesis!" May commanded, a bright smile on her face as she watched her Appeal come together.

Leafeon landed on all fours as it touched the ground, but only for a split second before hopping immediately back into the air and onto the awaiting Beautifly's back. The two flew to the middle of the heart, where it was open and quite see-through. The brightness of the lights above them seemed to give them a golden color as they began to glow in the center of the silver-green shape.

After a moment longer, the Silver Wind, along with the Razor Leaf, lost its shape and flew off behind the two Pokémon, spiraling its way around the unnoticed Coordinator. May had come out into the open once the heart had disappeared, and now the Silver Wind flew away from her; back to wrap itself around the still-glowing Pokémon.

Leafeon hopped off of Beautifly's back and up into the air, spinning again until the golden glow exploded into sparkles, releasing it and leaving it fully-healed.

Beautifly, who had the most work to do, having to use Psychic and Morning Sun at the same time, released its hold over the Silver Wind and its healing state. Silver and gold sparkles erupted from the stage, the leaves falling along everywhere.

The Coordinator laughed as she ran up to her Pokémon, catching her Eeveelution in her arms as it fell back toward the ground and feeling her Beautifly land on her head. She waved at everybody as they clapped and cheered for her.

"Hello, everybody! I'm May Maple, and I'm not your _average_, everyday Damsel-in-Distress!" she chuckled, turning around and skipping off of the stage, carrying her Pokémon along.

Anissa was clapping as she watched her friend come back to their little group against the entrance/exit wall, "That was great, May! Very creative!"

May smiled, letting her Leafeon down on the ground before replying, "Thank you very much, Anissa! Yours was awesome, too! I didn't know you could call up a Blizzard like that… I always thought it had to come out from the Pokémon's mouth or something."

"Well, that's only in some cases…" the older explained, looking down to watch her Espeon and Glaceon walk up to the other's Leafeon and sniff at each other.

_**Espi?**_ Espeon blinked, its nose still twitching.

_**Glaci?**_ Glaceon tilted its head to the side, watching.

_**Leafeon! Leee!**_ Leafeon piped, hopping up and down repeatedly. Well, one thing was for sure, it was still as hyper as ever. The other two Eeveelutions went from confused and curious to happy and cheerful as they too began to jump up and down, all chattering.

"Haahaa! Looks like they're friends already!" May giggled.

Drew observed the three Pokémon's behavior before shaking his head and looking back to the stage; at least they'd managed to kill the time by paying attention to them instead of the other Coordinators. They'd just missed one of the Intro Appeals.

"Hmm… Looks like we have one more person on the list!" Lillian exclaimed, "So let's bring him up here so we can get on with the show! Please welcome, Drew Warren!"

He smirked, pushing himself off of the wall where he'd been leaning, looking to May and Anissa. Anissa had an eyebrow raised with a grin on her face, while May looked determined and confident.

"It's your turn, then…" the brunette said.

He flicked his bangs, chuckling, "Heh, my ears are just fine, May. I heard it the first time." Turning around, he walked down the steps and off to the back of the stage where he released not two, but _three_ of his Pokémon.

Out came his Absol, Masquerain, and Roselia, all looking to him for their instructions. He nodded to them and toward the stage before whispering, "Absol, use Razor Wind."

_**Sol!**_ It said as it rushed onto the stage with its long midnight black horn glowing a brilliant white. It jumped into the air and aimed for center stage as it brought its horn down, forcing a razor-sharp wind to slice through the air and crash into the stage. The stage was unharmed, but smoke had risen all over it so that nearly nothing was visible.

Suddenly, two Gusts of wind appeared, blowing away the smoke, but still staying there. The two twisters then turned silvery as a Silver Wind was added to it, all of this coming from Masquerain, of course.

_**Rose!**_ Roselia cried, pointing its roses at the two Silver Gusts and releasing Petal Dance. The bright pink flower petals blew along in the winds as they began to slowly grow closer and closer to each other. They soon formed together to make a larger twister as Absol used Thunder to make it look like it were a real storm… The lightning attacks short-circuited the stage lights, making it so no one could see anything but the glowing silver tornado and the bright yellow electric attack.

The Thunder came to a stop and the tornado exploded, leaving smoke to coat the entirety of the stage and silver sparkles and flower petals to dance around in the air. As the smoke cleared away and the stage lights came back on, everyone was focused on Drew. He stood in the exact spot where the Silver Tornado had blown up, his hands in his pockets as he stared straight through the crowd to May with his infamous smirk on his face.

Absol stood to his left side, Roselia to his right, and Masquerain floated over his head as plenty of people took pictures as well as clapping and cheering. Several girls were screaming his name and shouting out how they love him and if he'd marry them. All he did was flick his hair again before speaking.

"This Contest is definitely something different, so I'll have to give some credit…" he pulled out a bright red rose, the way he always did. All the girls in the audience began to squeal and scream, hoping that it'd be for them. "I can't wait to see what else is in store for us Coordinators, and I also can't wait to see who gets partnered up with who."

With that said, he spun around in a swift and graceful circle before throwing the rose out into the air. The fangirls were trying to jump up and catch it, but then he ordered his Masquerain to use a gentle Silver Wind.

_**Mas!**_ It flapped its tiny wings as the Silver Wind swirled through the air, doing loop-de-loops before picking the rose up in its current and blowing it straight into May's hands.

May blushed lightly, holding onto the now silvery and glittery flower. Her brilliant blue eyes looked up toward Drew, their gaze connecting. Both smiled at each other, but were interrupted by the angry shouts and whines of the rabid fangirls.

"THAT WAS MINE!"

"NO, IT WAS MINE!!"

"THAT WAS FOR ME, LITTLE MISS DAMSEL, SO GIVE IT HERE!!"

"HEY, YOU, SHUT UP! IT WAS OBVIOUSLY COMING TOWARD ME!!"

They all wound up forgetting about May and fighting on with each _other_. May blinked, sweatdropping as she watched it all go on before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned, seeing Anissa grinning.

"C'mon, let's get out of here before they remember why they're fighting."

She nodded in response, "Yeah."

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All of the Coordinators were, by now, in their respective rooms. All, of course, but May, Anissa, and Drew. Apparently, many of those fangirls were still roaming the halls and looking for May and Drew. May, so they could kill her to take the rose, and Drew so they can tell him how great he did and ask him to marry them.

The said-brown-haired Coordinator was currently hiding inside of a closet, along with the green-haired other in an attempt to stay out of sight. Anissa was leaning back against the door of the closet, sort of acting as a lookout.

"Are they gone yet…?" May asked, hoping that they were.

"I just saw another security guard go off with two more of them. That's about… ten of them that have been caught, but from what my Espeon can sense, there's still around five more out there."

"Aw, man! Why did you have to go and pull off that little stunt, Drew? You couldn't've waited until you got to me to give me the rose?" she pouted, "Wait, of _course_ not! You just _had_ to show-off some more, didn't you?"

"You think that was showing off? Oh _no_, May, you'll _know_ when I'm showing off!" he snapped back, "Besides, can you really blame me for being so unbelievably attractive?"

"Yes, yes I can! Because if it weren't for you and your so-called _attractiveness_, we wouldn't be in this mess!"

"What do y'mean 'so-called?' You can't deny that I am!"

"Again, _YES-I-CAN_!!"

"SHHH!!! Can't you guys keep quiet for even one minute?" Anissa hissed, casting cautious looks both ways down the hall, "If you don't lower the volume, they're gonna find you before you can say _Masquerain's Masquerade Must Be Marvelous_!"

The two inside the closet fell silent for a moment before May started saying, "Masquerain's Masquerade Must be Mar—"

"HEY, YOU!! Have you seen May or Drew anywhere?" a voice shouted.

Drew immediately slapped his hand over May's mouth, holding onto her and trying to keep her from moving and making any noise. She, however, was not making it easy for him. She kept wiggling and trying to get away from him, but then she heard the high-pitched voice of one of his insane fangirls and went limp almost instantly.

On the outside, Anissa tried to stay as nonchalant as she could. Her arms were folded as she picked up one hand and put a finger to her chin. Her eyes went up to the ceiling as if she were thinking about it.

"Hmm… May? And Drew? Nope, haven't seen them… Although, since they _are_ Coordinators in the Contest, I'd say they were in their rooms."

"No, they're not. I already checked." The fangirl said, obviously annoyed, "You're useless to me if you don't know where I can find them!!" She turned around and scurried down the hall, only to scream and run down the way she'd come the first time.

"Hey, come back here!!" A security guard commanded, running after the girl with a club in his hand.

Anissa chuckled as she whispered to the two hiding in the closet behind her, "It's safe for the moment. You guys alright in there?"

Drew sighed in relief, taking his hand away from May's mouth and putting it down to rest around her waist like his other one. The girl blushed brightly, but was thankful to the dimness in the closet that he couldn't see it. She easily slipped her arms out from his now-loosened grip around her, only to feel him pull her closer to him so that her back rested against his chest. She must've looked beet red.

"Dr-Drew… wh-what the hell do y'think you're doing?" she whispered.

"We're fine, Anissa!" he said aloud before putting his chin on May's shoulder and whispering, "Well, I think I'm apologizing for earlier, what do you think? Why else would I hug you?"

"Y-y'know, you could'a said 'I'm sorry' before giving me said-hug!" she whispered again, biting her lip and trying to restrain herself from giving in to her feelings for him. _Damn it… Why'd I have to like the popular guy with the crazed fangirls??_

"Espia, is it safe yet?" Anissa asked her Espeon.

The Psychic Eeveelution closed its eyes as the red jewel in the middle of its forehead began to glow for a moment. When it reopened its eyes, it smiled and nodded, _**Espi!**_

"Good girl, then, Espia!" the DeMont girl turned around and knocked on the closet door, "May, Drew! It's okay to come out now! They've all been caught by the guards!"

"Thank Jirachi!" May exclaimed, bursting out of the closet and tripping onto the floor. She pouted, pushing herself up to her elbows and watching as Espia laughed at her before giving her a lick on the cheek, "Well, tripping and hurting my stomach isn't as bad as getting pummeled by fan zombies over a flower…"

Drew easily stepped out of the closet and over her, only to stand at her side and bend down, holding out a hand, "Need a hand?"

"I guess…" she mumbled, taking his hand and pulling herself back up. She dusted herself off for a bit before looking over to Anissa, "Where do we go to get our rooms?"

"Drew should know." She smiled at the green-haired boy, "It was the place where you signed in for the Contest. Just go over there and ask."

"And… what're _you_ going to do?" he asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm going to bed… I got my room reserved already, so I'll be rooming with my best friend Fordé."

May blinked before remembering, "Wait, you mean Fordé Sourentis?"

Anissa looked at her, nodding, "The very one! We grew up together! He told me he fought with you in the forest… Sorry about that! He can be a bit overconfident sometimes…"

"I understand that one!" the brunette giggled.

"I better get going before he starts to worry and sends Flareon out to come find me… You don't know how much damage it can deal when it's looking for me. Aagh…" she groaned, slapping her forehead, "I also forgot to tell him about something else! I gotta run!"

"Good night, Anissa!" May bade her farewell as she watched the other run down toward the Coordinators' Rooms area. She turned to Drew, seeing that he was already walking on. Running, she caught up to him and walked alongside him, "So, then, have you learned from your mistake?"

"Hm? What mistake?"

Her eye twitched, "The mistake of doing something for me that would make other people want to kill me, that's what mistake!"

"Oh… sure, whatever."

An anger cross appeared on her head as she growled, "Damn it, Drew! Why do you always—"

"—have to be so cool? Oh, that's an easy one. It's because I _am_, of course!" he finished for her, smirking as he caused her temper to rise.

She wanted to roar out… She wanted to hurt him, but she couldn't. She turned her growling into coughing as she forced herself to calm down, staying quiet as they slowly began to approach the Registration Counter.

"You've got to admit, though…" he began.

May looked at him out the corner of her eye, waiting for him to continue.

"You _liked_ it."

She stopped, staring at him as he passed her by and walked straight up to the counter and talked to the lady behind it. When he was done talking to her, he'd walked back over to May with… two room keys with the number 7 on them.

May stared again, "What's this…?"

Drew sighed, "Apparently, since we didn't register for any rooms in advance and they don't have any extras, we've got to stay in the only room left available…"

"As in… _together_?" she shivered, feeling an excited chill come over her and a light blush begin to spread over her cheeks.

The other's face began to burn as well as he held out one of the keys to her, closing his eyes and looking away from her in an attempt to hide his embarrassment, "I guess so." His blush faded away almost right away as he looked back to her with a wide smirk, "Well then, May! You must feel pretty lucky to be roomed with _me_!"

"What?! Do not!" she denied, although she knew that inside, she really did. She snatched the key and turned around to stomp off toward the hall.

"Hey, Maaay?" he asked in a sing-song voice.

"What now!?" she asked, stopping and glaring over her shoulder at him.

Drew's smirk was even wider as he pointed toward the hallway on the other side of the lobby, "Our room's _this_ way."

_DAMN IT, HE DID IT AGAIN!!_ She shouted in her head as she turned back around and tried to keep her cool… She tried so hard, but her anger and irritation was still evident as her eye was twitching, _Why me? Why does it always have to be me??_

* * *

**Emerald's Nonsense:**

Haahaa, what'd y'think? Seriously, I'd like to know. The only people who have read this before I posted it are miine cousin Andii and miine friend Ora-chan from school. They liked it, but only because I wrote it. XP I need to know what y'all think, otherwise I might not think it's as good as they think.


	10. 10: Noodles & Jealousy

disclaimer: _Emerald Twin Blade_ does not own Pokémon... _or_ Naruto, for that matter. Why do I mention Naruto? You'll see. XD! I _do_, however, own **Fordé Sourentis** & **Anissa DeMont**, as well as a few other characters I'll be adding soon. XP

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

103 Reviews... 103 Re... 103... IT'S AN ODD NUMBER ABOVE 100! **_I LOVE IT_**!!!! I want to thank all of you for helping me get over 100 Reviews! I will no longer be holding ransoms, but I will be having trouble posting next chapters until I post up the next Fragment of **Black Velvet**, which is miine _Kingdom Hearts_ fanfic. It's a bit overdue for a new chapter, so... yeaz. XP

This chapter is kinda... well... off-topic? Let's just say it involved lots and lots of food! LoL! And in the beginning, LOTS of references to **Pokémon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea**. Everyone's favorite little Prince of the Sea will fit wonderfully into this Fic! Y'know?

key:

" " dialogue

_thoughts & emphasis_

**_Pokémon Speech_**

**onomatopoeia**

**

* * *

****: Fragment No. 10 :**

**_Noodles & Jealousy_**

May smiled, laughing happily as several Chinchou and Remoraid swum around her. She was seemingly underwater… and able to breathe. Swimming forth, her ear twitched as she heard a familiar call.

_**Mana! Mana, Mana!**_

She stopped, turning her head left and right. Hope was swelling in her heart; could it really be? It'd been 5, maybe 6, years since she heard that voice.

"M-Manaphy?" she stuttered, looking around.

_**Mana! Whee! Mana!**_

"Manaphy!! Where are you?" she called out, watching as more Water Pokémon swam past her.

_**Mana! Mama! Happy!**_

She was about to start moving again, when suddenly, a brightly glowing Pokémon spiraled around her body before swimming off in front of her and spinning around in circles, _**Happy! Love you! Mama!**_

May's smile grew to the brightest it'd been in years, "Manaphy!" She swam forth and put her arms around the Voyage Pokémon, both rubbing their cheeks together.

_**Whee! Mama!**_ It said, looking up at her with bright blue eyes, _**Mama, Happy?**_

The girl nodded, "Yes… Mama's _very_ happy." She wanted to cry… It'd been so long since she'd seen her little Prince of the Sea.

_**Mama, Love Drew?**_

Her eyes went wide; when did Manaphy learn _that_? "Wh-what?"

_**Mama happy! Mama happy, love Drew?**_ Manaphy asked, watching with its head tilted to the side.

May blushed lightly, nodding; she just couldn't lie to the little Pokémon, "Yes… I do love Drew…"

_**Whee! Mana! Mana, Mana!**_ It exclaimed, floating up out of May's arms and spinning around happily.

_**Luvdisc… Luv…**_ The school of Rendezvous Pokémon fish cooed as they came on through, swimming all around May excitedly as Manaphy floated away.

May held her hand out, trying to reach out, "Manaphy! Please! Don't leave me yet! Not again!"

Suddenly, there was another one… She could hardly see it, but there seemed to be a smaller version of Manaphy floating along with it. Just… what was it?

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"May…"

May Maple sighed into her pillow, frowning slightly. Why was Manaphy going off again with a mini-version of itself?

"May…"

Why were these Luvdisc surrounding her, and what's more, why wouldn't they let her move? Hold on a sec, how did Manaphy know about Drew, anyway?

"MAY!!!"

"Gaah!!" she cried, falling out of bed and finding herself completely tangled up in her bed sheets. She pouted, looking up toward the bed opposite hers, only to see Drew lying on his stomach with his chin in his hands as he watched her with a smug look on his face.

"Did you have a good dream? You were smiling so much, I just thought it was my duty to ruin it…"

May looked down at the sheets wrapped tightly around her; her eye twitched as she tried to get herself untangled, but to no avail. Apparently, Drew had tied them around her in her sleep. So _this_ was why she felt like Luvdisc were trapping her.

"Why do you always have to ruin my life?!"

He seemed to think about it for a moment before looking down at her with the same look, "It's fun."

"Grr… UNTIE ME RIGHT NOW, DREW WARREN!!" she commanded angrily, trying to wiggle out of the sheets. Still no luck.

"How about a _'please,'_ May Maple…" he teased, enjoying watching her try to get out of this little situation.

"Fine, then. _Please_, untie me right now!"

He shook his head, "No… no… You gotta say it like you mean it!"

"DREW!!!"

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Anissa was giggling as she listened to the arguing going on inside of Room #7. She'd known right away that it had to be May and Drew's room, seeing as she didn't know anyone else who would start fighting like _that_ first thing in the morning. Sure, she'd only just met them last night, but they seemed like the type of couple to do that…

She was leaning back against the wall beside their door, making sure to scare any other Coordinators who thought they'd come out to see what the commotion was. She didn't understand why, but she could really scare people when she wanted to… Just one glance at them, and they'd high-tail it out of there! Oh well, she supposed it was just a trait that went along in the DeMont family.

Deciding that she'd enjoyed their argument for long enough, she knocked loudly on the door, listening as it all went quiet for a bit, "Hey, May! Drew! It's 11:30! Let's go grab some brunch before the Singles Appeals start up!"

The door suddenly opened as Drew was instantly shoved out of the room, the door slammed closed as May's voice shouted, "I'll be out in a minute!"

Anissa looked amusedly at the green-haired Coordinator, "I take it you finally helped her out of your little trick?"

"No, she actually just ripped them apart to get out of them." He mumbled, straightening his slightly wrinkled jacket from when he was lying on the bed, "So, how'd you know about it?"

She smirked, "Correction: How could I _not_ know about it? Drew, you guys were so loud that the majority of the Coordinators came out of their rooms to come and stare at this door, listening to your little lovers' spat."

"How peachy…" he muttered before blushing lightly at her last comment, "And we're not together, so it's not a lovers' spat. Just a disagreement between rivals, that's all."

Anissa folded her arms, suppressing a laugh, "Suuuure… and my Espeon's really just a Ditto in disguise."

The door suddenly came open and May stepped out, wearing her signature red, dark blue, and white outfit. She looked to Anissa with a confused look, "Whoa, it is?"

Drew slapped his forehead in embarrassment as Anissa finally let out that laugh. She shook her head and put a hand on the younger girl's shoulder, "I was trying to make a point, so no, it's not. Espia's a real Espeon. Anyway, shall we go? Fordé and a few of his friends are waiting for us in the food court."

They'd already started walking before May realized what she'd said, "Wait… Food court? Aren't those only in malls?"

"Nope; I guess you could call it the cafeteria here, then… But there are lots of different places to get different foods. Like pizza, burgers, hot dogs, spaghetti…"

"Ramen, too??" May asked excitedly.

"Of course! They've got a Ramen Shop with a counter you can eat at!"

"REALLY!?" Drew was beginning to get frightened of the now overly excited Coordinator he was roomed with. He would have been scared out of his wits if she'd been acting like this earlier.

"Well, we're here!" Anissa declared, pointing to the huge area with small shops for food representing other, larger places to eat, such as McDonalds and Burger King.

May looked like she was in _Heaven_; her hands were clasped together as if praying and she was staring at the one place she never thought she'd see, or eat at, again.

It was Ichiraku Ramen. She'd been to Japan once or twice when she was a kid, and ever since, she always thought that they had _the_ perfect ramen. And now… it was here!

Stars were in her eyes as she stared at the place; how could it not be wrapped up in business? There were two, maybe three people eating there! Well, she'd definitely give them their money's worth!

"H-hey, May?" Drew asked meekly, still freaked out.

She snapped out of her trance-like staring at the Ramen Shop to look to the other, "Hm?"

"You planning to eat there?" he pointed over to Ichiraku Ramen, glad that she'd calmed down.

She nodded, "Sure am! They've got the best ramen EVER!"

"Heh, is that so? I guess I'll have to test it…" he said, flicking his hair, "Because I, for one, believe that Byakuren Ramen has the best ramen ever."

"Byakuren Ramen? _That_ fancy-ass place? No way! The only thing that they could ever have the best of is those little umbrellas they put in their drinks!"

"Ichiraku Ramen doesn't look like it's all that great! See how much business they have right now?" he folded his arms and raised an eyebrow in the direction of the shop.

"Pfft! I guess you _will_ have to test it, then! Ichiraku Ramen has _the_ best ramen ever, and after this, you'll think so, too!!" She grabbed his arm and dragged him over to the Ramen Shop, shoving him into the seat beside her at the counter.

"Two bowls of ramen with shrimp and lemon chicken, please!" she called to the chef.

(Emerald's Nonsense: Haahaa, shrimp and lemon chicken! My mom makes that ALL the time. I don't like it, but that doesn't mean May doesn't! XD!)

"Coming right up, little lady!" the man replied, smiling at her as he cooked it up.

"Hm…" Drew thought for a bit; at least the chef seemed pleasant enough.

The man brought these huge bowls over to them, setting them down on the counter in front of them. It definitely _looked_ good, and it was steamy, too! May stared at it hungrily as she took some chopsticks and immediately dug right into it.

Drew blinked, staring at the huge bowl, "Um… Could I get a small order of this instead? I don't think I can finish this…"

"Haahaa! Silly boy! That _is_ the small!"

His eyes went to the size of the actual bowl, _What the hell!?_ He looked over to May, expecting to see her bowl just as full as his, only to be completely and utterly surprised, "What the--!? Where'd it all go!?"

May laughed, "I ate it, Silly!" she held the bowl out to the nice chef, "Can I have another one, pleeeease?"

The man laughed heartily, "You're a sweet girl! I like you! Sure, you can have another!" And so, he went straight to work on it, bringing her bowl back, full.

Drew didn't even bother trying to eat his, because he was too busy watching how May just seemed to slurp all her ramen up. How did she do it? And still not look disgusting about it? By the time she was at her fourth bowl, he actually thought she looked pretty cute eating it the way she did. Actually, she'd tried to slurp up one of the noodles and it flew up to touch the tip of her nose before she could eat it, leaving a dot of lemon juice on her nose. All she did was giggle, reaching for a napkin to clean it off.

He beat her to it, however, taking the napkin and lightly dabbing at her nose three times before pulling it away, a fond look in his eye as he watched her. She looked back at him, blushing lightly.

"Eh heh… thanks…"

"No problem." He said simply.

She looked to his untouched bowl of ramen; it'd stopped steaming, but it was still warm, "Hey, you haven't eaten yours yet!" she picked up his chopsticks and picked up a fair amount of the noodles in them before holding it toward his mouth with her other hand held under the noodles so they wouldn't drip on the floor, "C'mon, Drew! You know you wanna try it! It's really, really good!"

Now, it was Drew's turn to blush. He tried to look away, but he found that if he waited any longer, the noodles would probably slip off of the chopsticks to land either in her hand or on his _pants_. He shyly opened his mouth, allowing her to feed him. She gently eased the noodles into his mouth, where he bit down on them as May pulled the chopsticks away. From the way she'd given them to him, he wound up slurping them up the way he'd been watching her do it all this time.

"So…? What'd y'think?" she asked, watching him expectantly.

He took a moment to get all the taste and flavoring through in his mouth before he looked to her. That hopeful look in her eyes… He couldn't turn that down! Besides, the ramen _was_ pretty good… If he had to compare this ramen to the one at Byakuren Ramen, he'd actually say they were basically the same. He shrugged mentally, deciding that May probably just favored Ichiraku Ramen because the people were easier to talk to than the waiters at the other place.

"Not bad… It's pretty good." He said with a grin, "_And_ better than Byakuren Ramen."

"Yaay!" May cheered, looking to the chef-man, "One more and I'll get off your back!"

She just earned a laugh from the man as he took her bowl and put a pre-made one in front of her, "I knew you'd ask for another one, so I was working on it the whole time you two were talking." He looked to Drew, looking him up and down the way he was sitting, smiling at the girl, "He your boyfriend?"

May had just started eating her fifth bowl of ramen, but with that question asked, she nearly choked on it. Forcing herself to swallow it, she laughed nervously, blushing brightly as she looked to the other, seeing a blush on his face, too.

"N-no… he's just a friend of mine."

"Oh, I see! You want to keep it on the down-low, right?"

May put her chopsticks down and waved her hands out in front of her defensively, "No! I mean it! Drew's not my—"

"Oh, well, now _that_ changes everything!" the chef-man said, laughing, "If this here boy is Drew, I take it that you're May?"

She nodded, "Y-yes… that's right."

"I won't pester y'anymore, then." He turned around and went back to making some more ramen for the other customers.

May gulped, looking to Drew, only to find him looking away from her and slurping up his own ramen. Seeing this only made her giggle. He finished and looked over to her, raising an eyebrow and grinning at her.

"What's so funny?"

"You stole my ramen-eating style!"

"If you didn't eat so much of it while I was watching, maybe I wouldn't have." He replied, going back to eating.

"Teehee…" she giggled again before finishing her bowl easily, "I love Ichiraku Ramen… Hey, Chef! How much do I owe you?"

"Nothing! It's on the house!"

"Whoa… seriously?" May blinked.

Drew chuckled, shaking his head, "I guess you didn't hear Anissa when she was explaining that all the foods here in the food court have been pre-paid by Mr. Contesta. Coordinators eat for free."

She pouted, folding her arms, "I-I knew that!"

"Sure you did, and I'm the Prince of Roses…"

"Y'know, that _is_ kinda true…"

"How so?"

May shrugged, "Well, you always pull one out of nowhere and give it to me… Do you ever give them to anybody else?"

"No… I don't…" he admitted, pushing his now-empty bowl of ramen away. Well, it looked like he _was_ able to finish it, after all!

"Huh?" she blinked, staring at him. She wasn't expecting that answer… So, she really was the only person he ever gave roses to? That made her feel… well… really good! She smiled at him, getting up off her seat and turning around, "Let's go find, Anissa!" She turned to look at him over her shoulder, "… okay?"

Drew nodded, smiling back as he hopped off the chair, "Okay."

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"—Oh, look! May! Drew! Over here!!"

The two Coordinators stopped and looked over the many tables in the middle of the huge food court, only to see Anissa waving at them. May waved back as she took Drew's hand and pulled him through the maze of tables and up to where Anissa was.

"Sorry we're a little late, Anissa!" she apologized, letting go of Drew and bowing.

"Yeah, May decided to help herself to five huge bowls of ramen." Drew added, smirking as he received a "HEY!" from the girl, "Well, it's true, isn't it?"

"You're pretty skinny for a girl who ate all of that… Where'd you put it all, May?" another male voice asked.

May looked to the table Anissa was sitting at, seeing Fordé sitting beside her. She smiled, "Fordé! It's you!"

He picked up his arm and put his elbow on the table, giving her a thumbs-up with a wink and a smile, "The one and only! Now, how about an answer?"

"It goes to her stomach, duh! Just because she doesn't look fat like you do when you eat a lot, doesn't mean you should ask if there's a difference between you two."

May looked to who was sitting in front of Fordé only to see a slightly annoyed Brendan, and then Wally sitting beside him and in front of Anissa.

"Geez, do you have to be so damn harsh about it, Brendan? Lighten up!" Fordé suggested, leaning back in his seat and folding his arms.

"Whoa… Brendan, you're here, too?" May asked, blinking, she looked to Wally, who was waving feebly at her, "Hi, Wally! Sorry, I didn't get to see your Appeal yesterday! How'd it go?"

Wally grinned triumphantly, giving her a peace sign with his fingers, "I did pretty well, if I do say so myself!" He pouted childishly, though, as he pointed at Anissa, "But she copied my idea of using Psychic with Ice!"

"Hey, hey! Technically, I used Blizzard while you used Ice Beam! And you used a Psychic-type Pokémon with a Dragon-type, whereas I used an actual Ice-type!" Anissa argued, pushing his pointing finger down to the table, "And stop pointing, it's impolite!"

**Grrr…** Everyone stared at Fordé. The redhead laughed embarrassedly, "Since we were waiting for the two of you, Anissa wouldn't let us order anything. I'm still starved!"

**Grrr…** Now, everyone stared at May. She pouted, putting her hands on her stomach in an attempt to quiet it, but it just growled again.

"You just ate five freaking bowls of ramen! You CAN'T tell me you're still hungry!!" Drew literally shouted at her.

"I'm sorry, but my metabolism is really, really messed up! It's why I eat a lot! I really don't know why I stay so skinny, but I think that might have something to do with why I eat the way I do." She listened to her stomach growling again and started whining, "I need more food!"

Brendan grinned at her; she'd always been like this. She'd cleaned out his fridge so many times over their childhood years that he'd lost count already. Pushing himself up to his feet, he closed his eyes and tried to look cool, succeeding in doing so very well.

"Just hold on a bit, May, I'll go get you something."

Drew felt something begin to growl inside of him… and it wasn't his stomach. He could feel a bit of anger begin to swell in his heart toward Brendan; he'd felt this way before, too. Careful not to let his inner feelings show, he closed his own eyes and slipped his hands into his pockets.

"Don't sweat it, Brendan. I'll do it. I'm already up."

Brendan glared, "Yeah? Well, so am I!"

May blinked at the two's tiny argument, looking over to Brendan, "Well, Brendan… if Anissa made you wait for us before you could eat, that means you haven't eaten, right? It's okay; Drew and I can go get something. You go on ahead and get something for yourself."

The white-haired trainer made a bit of a hurt look, "But…"

"You heard the girl, let's go!" Wally said, taking Brendan by the wrist and pulling him off to the little shop for Domino's Pizza.

"WAAAAIT! I DON'T LIKE DOMINO'S!!" Brendan shouted as he was dragged against his will.

Anissa laughed, taking Fordé by the wrist, "Let's go grab something at Branding Iron! They've got the biggest hot dogs I've ever seen!"

Fordé couldn't help cracking up at her last sentence, "I'm sorry… sorry… but, 'Nissa, that sounded SO wrong!"

She blinked, rethinking her words in her head, before she blushed and shoved him into a support beam, "You just think wrong, Fordé! For the love of Palkia!"

Drew sighed once it was just him and May again, looking to her, "So… what do you want to eat now?"

May looked over to where Brendan and Wally were, chuckling, "Unlike Brendan, I think Domino's has the best pizza EVER!"

The green-haired Coordinator couldn't help laughing; apparently, May would only eat at the places she thought had the best specific dish EVER! Shaking his head, he started walking toward the line, landing the two of them right behind Wally and Brendan.

"So, how was it at Ichiraku's? I remember you saying how much you used to love it back when we were kids!" Wally said, smiling at his female best friend.

"It was great! I still love their ramen, but I didn't want to annoy the chef, so we left earlier than I would've liked." May replied, pouting before smiling back, "But my favorite pizza will definitely make me feel better!"

Brendan sighed; whenever he tried to spend time with May, Wally usually came in and took him away, or took away her attention. And what's worse, two out of three childhood friends loved Domino's Pizza. It was okay… if he were starving, he'd eat it, but right now, he could definitely go for a burger or something else.

Drew smirked at him, catching his eye easily. Brendan glared, "And just what the hell're _you_ smirking about?"

"Nothing… nothing at all… I take it that you don't eat Domino's Pizza?" he asked, still smirking.

"No. I don't." the white-haired Trainer replied plainly, "And what about you?"

"Oh, I don't normally eat pizza, but if I had to choose, I'd definitely come here…" he answered.

"Oh?" Brendan's eye was beginning to twitch.

"It's just like May said… Domino's has the best pizza ever. I agree with her, so I'll probably wind up eating a lot of it…" he added, flicking his bangs.

Okay, that did it. Brendan stood up straight folding his arms, "In that case, I think I _will_ eat some. And I'll eat even more than you!"

Drew couldn't help chuckling, "Bring it on, _Snowhead._"

"Let's see if you can handle it, _Treetop_!"

* * *

Emerald's Extra Nonsense: 

Ahaahaa... Snowhead... Ever played _The Legend of Zelda_? The Gorons lived at Snowhead Mountains in... I think it was Majora's Mask? Yeaz, I think that was it...

IF YOU THINK THIS WAS A FILLER, IT WASN'T!! ... At least I don't think it was. o.o; Oh well, what'cha think? I'm gonna go try to write Frag.#08 for **Black Velvet**, then finish off Frag.#13 for this one. XP

WISH ME LUCK!


	11. 11: Competition Makes Mischief

disclaimer: Still... I own nothing. Nothing but my precious plot Lopunny. --huggles Lopunny-- I don't own Pokémon, but I do own Anissa DeMont & Fordé Sourentis. Bwa!

Emerald's News & Nonsense:

Okay... My Quinceneara is coming up on the 21st of July, People! Don't be surprised if I don't update again until some time after that. It's my big day! And I gotta get off now to practice with my Escort a certain Waltz we're going to do at the party.

In other news, Fragment #13 is completed! Albeit a short chapter, but it works. I'll make it up to you in #14! I swear! LoL!

key:

" " dialogue

_thoughts_ or _emphasis_

**_Pokémon Speech_**

**Onomatopoeia**

Now, then! Enjoy Fragment #11, Readers! X3

**

* * *

**

**: Fragment No. 11 :**

**_Competition Makes Mischief_**

Anissa, Fordé, and Wally stared with wide eyes as their fellow Coordinators were competing in a pizza-eating contest. Drew and Brendan were grabbing and eating every slice of pizza they could get their hands on, and eating them _fast_. The only person who wasn't stunned or surprised was May, who was confused and whining.

"Hey, you two! Can you stop fighting long enough for me to take a slice? I want some, too, y'know!" she pouted cutely.

The two boys stopped, looking at her and blinking with their cheeks puffed up from all the pizza they'd stuffed in them. She giggled, taking the _last_ piece of pepperoni pizza and munching on it happily as the two boys watched. When she finally noticed, she tilted her head.

"What?"

"You ate twice as many boxes of pizza as we did put _together_, and you take our last piece?" Drew asked, easily keeping his words straight as he continued to chew the pizza he still was eating while covering his mouth with a napkin. He didn't want to look gross…

Brendan gave a massive gulp, swallowing all his pizza before speaking clearly, "It's obvious that you don't know May very well… Her stomach is literally a black hole. She can eat as much as she wants and _still_ come out skinny and hungrier than ever."

The green-haired Coordinator glared at the white-haired Trainer, only to initiate another glaring contest. Who could last the longest without blinking?

May shrugged, "Actually, to tell the truth, I wasn't hungry anymore. I just took the last one so you guys wouldn't have any more to eat!"

The two just stared at her; did she even know that they were fighting over _her_? Drew sighed, leaning back in his seat beside May and looking up at the see-through glass ceiling of the food court. It was plain to see that it was a sunny day outside, even though many of the tall trees out there were shading them all inside from it.

**Ding, ding, ding, ding!**

Everyone looked up at the ceiling, having heard the loud bell-like sound echoing through the huge area. An intercom had just turned on and was now announcing something.

"Coordinators! It is now 12:30 PM, so you know what that means! It's time to head over to the Contest Stage and get ready for the Singles Appeals! We look forward to seeing your beautiful displays of creativity! That is all!"

Anissa smiled as she pushed herself out of her chair and look around at their group, "I guess we should get going now, then, huh? We've got about thirty minutes to get prepared, and then the actual Contest is going to start."

Fordé nodded, "Alright, looks like we'll have another chance to show off! Be sure not to do anything too similar to your Intro Appeal, Wally, because that can cost you."

Wally pouted, getting up as well, "I have other tricks up my sleeves, Fordé! Just watch and learn!"

Seeing this as another way to compete for May's heart, Brendan and Drew's glaring contest intensified as they realized how they could win her over using this Extreme Pokémon Contest to their advantage.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"All right! Welcome back to the Extreme Pokémon Contest!" MC Lillian called over the microphone, waving to the now _packed_ Contest Auditorium. From her spot on the stage, she jumped to the side of each judge, "If you weren't here last night for the Introductory Appeals, then here's your last chance to see your favorite Coordinators doing their wonderful Appeals in order to advance to the next round!"

Anissa, May, Drew, Brendan, Wally, and Fordé all stood by the entrance/exit where only the trio had been standing the night before. Wally and May were standing close to the seats, leaning over them to look out to the stage, Brendan and Drew were leaning against the wall (both on different sides of the door), and Anissa and Fordé were standing in front of the doorway and watching everything going on.

"Now, we have around 24 Coordinators left over in this contest, thanks to the narrowing down of the Petalburg Woods Search. Only 12 will advance to the next few rounds, which will only get better and better!" the orange-haired woman explained, pointing over to the judges beside her, "And, of course, we have our judges! The man who organized all of this, Mr. Contesta!"

"It's wonderful to be here!" the director said, smiling.

"The President of the Pokémon Fan Club, Mr. Sukizo!"

"It's Simply Remarkable!" the short man just cried out.

Lillian blinked at his enthusiasm before she introduced the last judge, "And finally, our very own, Nurse Joy!"

"I can't wait to see all the lovely Appeals!" the pink-haired nurse said excitedly, her hands clapping together as she smiled brightly.

"Alright! Let's bring out the first Coordinator of the day! Wally Anderson!"

The golden-haired boy jumped up and down, "That's me, that's me!!"

"What're you still doing here? _Go_, Wally!" May encouraged, pushing Wally toward the back of the stage, "You can do it!"

Having been pushed and being the light-weight that he was, he tripped over the stairs and fell straight into the Coordinators' Back Room. Getting back up and regaining composure, he ran out to the stage, only to be greeted by several people cheering and clapping… the loudest coming from where he'd just been only but a few seconds ago. He couldn't help smiling at how confident he was beginning to feel, with everyone cheering him on and waiting for him to give them a great show.

_If they want a great show, then I'll give it to them!_ He thought, taking out an Ultra Ball and tossing it up into the air, "Magnezone, we're up!"

A blinding white light filled the stage until at last; the strange-looking Magnetic Field Pokémon appeared for the audience.

_**Magna! Zo-zo-zo-zoooone!**_ The seemingly mechanical Magnezone beeped, its bluish body shining in the stage lights. Electricity was already beginning to crackle at the two magnets it had for 'arms,' and its three 'eyes' were looking around everywhere.

Wally smiled boldly, taking out three metal spheres from his pockets, "Alright, let's use Lock-On and then Thundershock!" With the command issued, he threw them out into the air where Magnezone's eyes were each focusing on separate orbs.

_**Maaaagna!**_ It cried in its computer-like voice as the electricity it'd been building up in its magnets was finally released toward the targets. Its stream of electricity shocked the spheres higher into the air.

"Now, Rain Dance!"

The strange, floating Pokémon's magnets began to spin around wildly as its body swayed to and fro. Dark grey clouds soon blurred the vision to the ceiling; the sound of thunder lightly booming in the storm clouds was very audible all over the room. After a few moments more, droplets of water had begun to rain down on them all.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Meanwhile… -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"_Shit_!" Fordé cursed, backing up into the doorway that led out of the auditorium in order to keep himself from getting touched by the rain.

"Huh? Is something wrong, Fordé?" May asked, blinking as she watched the boy curiously.

Anissa just chuckled evilly, "Silly ol' Fordé's afraid of the rain… Actually, he's not too fond of water in _general_. As far as I know, the only times he comes into contact with water is when he takes a shower and when he drinks it."

"And even _then_, I don't like it!" he admitted, watching everyone else get drenched from the inside of the nice and dry hallway.

May looked over to Brendan and Drew, only to find them both in the same position they'd been when they got there: leaning against the wall with their arms folded and probably just trying not to notice one another. Just what exactly was their problem? Deciding that she was going to have to ask sooner or later, she opened her mouth to voice her question, only to have a fierce burning in her nose. Her nostrils flared a bit before the burning feeling became too much to handle, causing her to let out a massive sneeze.

"Ah… A-CHOOO!"

All four of her current companions looked at her, grinning at her because of the randomness of that sneeze. It was easy to understand why she did it, though, considering that it was now raining indoors.

Drew closed his eyes, his grin apparent, "Heh… You should have worn something more appropriate, May."

The young girl glared at him, about to ask him what he meant, but she felt his hands on her shoulders and a comfortable warmth cover over her back, shoulders, and arms. Turning her head to look into his bright emerald eyes, she blushed lightly at the realization that he'd just taken off his jacket and given it to her.

"Uh-uhm…" she stuttered, quite speechless. Normally, Drew would just have left her there to sneeze her nose off, but he didn't… _Come to think of it, he _has_ been acting pretty different lately…_

"You don't have to say anything but _'thank you.'_ Besides, you're probably the only one here who's not wearing a long-sleeved shirt." He explained, bringing his arms back to fold over his chest and watch her with a smug look on his face.

This confused her; she was the only one not wearing…? Her sapphire eyes darted from person-to-person in their group; he was right. Brendan was wearing his usual jacket; Fordé had on a red blazer with white linings, Anissa was wearing a long grey jacket that went all the way down to her knees, and Drew, though jacket-less as he was, was still wearing his black long-sleeved top.

She pouted; he'd even switched his medium-sleeved lavender jacket for a fully long-sleeved lavender one for the day! Sighing in defeat, she slipped her arms through the sleeves and held it closed in front of her, instantly feeling quite a bit warmer than she had earlier. Perhaps it was from something else rather than the jacket, though…

Brendan glared over at Drew, who was watching May with that smirk of his and flicking his hair. _Damn it; will he stop trying to act so cool!?_ He thought maliciously, one of his grey eyes twitching repeatedly.

_**CRACKLE! SNAP!!**_

The four Coordinators looked over to the stage just in time to watch as Magnezone shot a huge Zap Cannon attack at the three metal orbs from before and send them up into the now very, _very_ dark storm clouds that had collected over the whole auditorium.

_**BOOM! BOOM!! BOOM!!!**_ The three spheres seemed to have exploded in the air, making the rain begin to pour down on everyone.

"Now, let's finish it all up with Thunder!" Wally called with a wide smile over his excited face.

_**Magna! Zo-zo-zo-zoooone!**_ The Magnetic Field Pokémon's magnets were spinning crazily until finally, the electricity crackling in them surged through its mechanical body to the antenna at the top of its head. The powerful Thunder attack shot up into the clouds from that antenna, causing it to boom loudly and lightning to flash brightly.

After it'd ceased sending the attack upward, the clouds themselves were crackling with energy before several beams of light crashed down on three separate spots on the stage.

All watched in amazement as the clouds slowly dissolved away, leaving the stage lights to light everything up as it had before. Everything looked the same as it had before Wally started his Appeal, excluding the fact that the audience was quite drenched and there were many puddles of rain water on the floor.

MC Lillian laughed as she jumped up beside Wally, winking at the crowds, "That was an awesome performance, Wally! Let's see what the judges thought!"

"Your obvious mastery over thunder made it look wonderfully controlled, like you could make it do just about anything you wanted it to!" Mr. Contesta explained his thoughts, smiling.

"Yes! Remarkable!" was all Mr. Sukizo had to say.

"I was on the edge of my seat! I was both scared that I'd get electrocuted thanks to the Rain Dance, but amazed by how your light show was working out." Nurse Joy commented, laughing embarrassedly.

"Alright! Now, let's see what you scored!" the redhead exclaimed, looking to the monitors on the Judges' podiums. In a matter of seconds, the numbers appeared on the small monitors.

Mr. Contesta: 9

Mr. Sukizo: 10

Nurse Joy: 8

"That gives you a total of 27 points! Well done, Wally!" she congratulated, spinning around to face the audience again, "How about we give him another hand before we bring out our next Coordinator?"

Everyone began to clap and cheer again, making Wally automatically bow. Funnily, his Magnezone followed suit and tilted itself forward to make it look like it was bowing, as well. With all that said and done, he returned his Pokémon to its pokéball and scurried offstage to the Back Room where all the Coordinators were supposed to wait.

However, his friends, being the kind of people that they were, were outside where the audience was so they could get a full-view of what was going on onstage. Running up the steps, he was greeted by a full-on glomp from May. He nearly fell back down the stairs, but he kept himself from doing so.

"You did it! I knew you could!" May cheered, laughing as she clung to her friend.

Wally smiled brightly, proud of himself and glad to receive praise. His eyes wandered over to Anissa and Fordé, who both winked at him. He knew he wouldn't get anything out of Drew, but when his eyes connected with Brendan's, he couldn't help feeling a lot better than he was already feeling.

His best friend was grinning at him, giving him a thumbs-up, "Good going, Wally."

He wound up blushing lightly at the compliment given by the one he wanted to be just like… the one he looked up to, "Th-thanks, Brendan."

_**CRASH!!**_ Everybody winced at the sound of glass breaking before turning to look off to the stage. A Sealeo was lying belly-up on the stage with anime swirls for eyes and it was surrounded by pieces of ice. Its trainer made an embarrassed look, running to his Pokémon's side and returning it to its pokéball.

All four of the judges' monitors showed a bright red X, indicating that both the trainer and his Pokémon were _out of there_. With him walking off stage, all attention returned to Lillian as she called out for the next Coordinator to step up.

"Brendan Birch! C'mon up!"

The white-haired trainer pushed himself away from the wall and unfolded his arms, his grey eyes narrowed at Drew with a smirk on his face. Drew merely glared and frowned at him.

_Let's see exactly how good or bad this guy is…_ he thought, watching his newest rival walk down the steps to the Back Room.

Brendan stood smirking on the stage, a Premier Ball in hand. He pulled his right elbow backward a bit before swinging his forearm outward and tossing the ball out to center stage.

"Feraligatr! I choose you!"

The white pokéball popped open, releasing the Pokémon that'd been trapped within. The Big Jaw Pokémon let out a roar as it stretched its arms out a bit.

_**Feraaaaligatr!**_ It looked around the stage, a long grin coming to its huge mouth as its eyes settled on its trainer. Brendan nodded at it before giving it a command.

"Use Protect!"

It put its arms out at full-length to its sides before a huge green shield appeared all around it.

"Alright, now use Water Gun!"

_What's he planning…?_ Drew asked in his mind, watching with narrowed eyes.

The Water-type Pokémon opened its massive jaws and let out a huge blast of water. With Protect still in play, the water fell to the floor and was quickly filling up the greenish protective bubble. Once it was full to the top and the water cleared, Feraligatr was visible floating in the huge bubble.

"Whoa…" Wally mumbled in amazement, leaning over a fan's seat to get a bit of a closer look.

"Oh, wow! That's so cool!" May exclaimed, clapping her hands together and holding them to the side of her cheek, "Brendan's really pretty good at this!"

Anissa smiled and chuckled, looking out the corner of her eye to Drew, only to see him scowl menacingly at the stage. It only made her laugh out loud, but she covered her mouth to keep it contained.

The Water Bubble began to roll around the stage, stopping in front of the judges and bouncing up and down. Apparently, Protect went all the way around the Pokémon, including at its feet.

Feraligatr rolled back to where it'd been before and looked to Brendan for another command. The white-haired trainer winked and gave it a thumbs-up.

"Water Pulse and Slash!"

A watery force was building up around the bubble until it all shot out in every direction like a wave, forcing the bubble up into the air in a huge **SPLASH!**

Feraligatr brought back its left arm as its claws began to glow bright white. It slashed at the Protect bubble and cut a hole in it, shooting itself out of the now-falling water. _**Feraligatrr!**_

"It seems that today's going to be a very wet day!" Mr. Contesta laughed, "Very good, my boy! That combination of Protect and Water Gun really captured my attention!"

Mr. Sukizo smiled widely, "It was simply remarkable!"

Nurse Joy giggled, "Your Feraligatr looked like it was really having a lot of fun! And I also agree with Mr. Contesta; that combination was very smart!"

"Now, then! How about we see your scores?" MC Lillian said, jumping over to the judges and holding her microphone to her face.

Mr. Contesta: 9

Mr. Sukizo: 10

Nurse Joy: 10

"That makes for an almost-perfect score of 29! Great job!"

Brendan smiled as the crowd cheered him on, bowing as his Feraligatr did the same. His eyes immediately fell upon May, who looked beyond amazed. He smirked, turning his gaze to Drew and finding an angry look on the Coordinator's face. Brendan would've laughed, but he was still on the stage.

He exited stage right and returned his Feraligatr to its Premier Ball before walking back to the others at their little spot. The two expected people ran up to him once he'd returned, both smiling and laughing.

"You were awesome out there, Brendan!" Wally complimented, smiling broadly.

"You really were! How'd you know that Water Gun would stay inside Protect?" May asked, deeply intrigued.

Brendan shook his head, putting a finger to his lips and winking at the two of them, "Thanks, but I'm not about to give away one of my little secrets."

Drew's eye twitched as he listened to their conversation, but he forced it to stop, _Man! I'm spending _way_ too much time with May! I'm starting to take over her bad habits!_

Shutting his eyes, he tried to erase everything that was going on around him so he could focus on the task soon to be at hand: his Appeal. Which Pokémon should he use? Definitely not Absol, because he always finished its Appeals with Water Pulse, and he didn't want to copy Brendan, of all people.

_So, then… it's either Roselia, Flygon, Masquerain, Butterfree, or…_ He thought; arms still folded as his head hung so that his green bangs covered over his face.

"Hey, what's up with you? Trying to think of a way to get a better score than me?"

Drew's eyes snapped open as he slowly looked up, only to see Brendan smirking at him. The green-haired Coordinator pushed himself away from the wall and put his left hand into his pocket.

"I don't even _have_ to think about it to be able to score higher than that measly 29." He said arrogantly, flicking his hair out of his face with his right hand. _At least, not _hard He added in his mind with a smirk.


	12. 12: Appealing Breakdown

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Pokémon or anything in this fic other than Fordé Sourentis and Anissa DeMont, and of course, the _Plot_.

Onward!

* * *

**: Fragment No. 12 :**

_**Appealing Breakdown**_

A loud maniacal giggling could be heard above the stage. The person who controlled the lights was sleep at his post thanks to a very generous douse of Sleep Powder. The giggling, however, was coming from a tall man dressed in a Cacturne outfit. He stood on the platform near the actual stage lights with his Ariados hanging down in front of him on a thread.

"Alright, my little pretty, I do believe that the little twerpette is next, so we're going to try and ruin her performance again, just like before! This time, it'll have to work, since I've finally gotten away from those loud mouth losers who call themselves a team!" Harley explained, laughing aloud again.

Thanks to how high up they were, no matter how hard or loudly he laughed, nobody would probably hear him. Putting his long purple hair behind his shoulder, he looked down on the stage, just waiting for the MC to say who was next.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Many, many more Coordinators had gone up and done their Appeals already, including Anissa, and even _Harley_. Now, it seemed that quite a few people with their last names starting with 'M' were being called up, so that could only mean that May was next to go from their group.

"The next Coordinator on the list is… May Maple! Come on up, May!" MC Lillian exclaimed, waving to her. She'd known about that little group from the beginning of the 1st Round, and she was familiar with May, so it was pretty inevitable that she was going to wind up waving her over.

"I'm next!" May exclaimed, clenching her fists and trying to contain her excitement. Turning around to face everyone, she saw them all smiling at her. She did the same, tilting her head a bit, "Wish me luck!"

"Good luck, May!" Wally, Anissa, and Fordé came right out and said. Brendan just winked at her, and Drew raised an eyebrow with his usual smirk. The brunette Coordinator had learned by now that those two didn't actually say "good luck,' they just made a motion that meant the same thing.

Turning around, she skipped down the steps. Drew, however, let his head drop again so that his face was hidden. He then whispered so silently that you'd have to read his lips to know what he was saying,

"Good luck, May…"

The brunette Coordinator ran straight through the Back Room and onto the stage, raising her hands up and doing a cartwheel and round-off before landing with her arms up. Her left eye closed into a quick wink at everyone who watched, but most specifically at the group.

The crowd went absolutely berserk at her skillful entrance, but then she took out a pokéball and spun around in a few circles.

"Alright, Blaziken! Let's take the stage!" she exclaimed at last, throwing out the pokéball and allowing her Singles Appeal Pokémon to pop out of it.

_**Blaze!**_ It grunted, doing a front flip in the air and landing before its trainer.

Harley, from up at the top of the stage, had his eyes go wide as he remembered the first time he'd tried to ruin the little girl's appeal. It'd been that same Pokémon; it wasn't a Blaziken at the time, but a Combusken. All the invisible webs that Ariados had created to make a trap… that particular plan nearly worked, too! Had it not been for those old twerps that she used to hang around with…

He glared hatefully down at her, but he let out a 'Hmph!' and looked to Ariados with a devious smirk, "It's show time, Sweetie! You know the plan, so use String Shot, now!"

_**Ari!**_ The Long Pokémon piped, spitting out four invisible threads.

Each thread wrapped itself around one of Blaziken's limbs: one to its left leg, right arm, etc. The said-Blaze Pokémon's eyes went wide as it felt the intrusion of its personal space and the strong strings that now ensnared its limbs. It tried to move its arms and legs, but it couldn't do it. It was completely frozen.

Harley laughed manically, taking control of the threads from Ariados and holding onto them like a Puppet master would hold the controls to its Puppet, "Sorry, Hon, but you won't be taking orders from the Twerp today!"

_**Bl-Blaze…**_ Blaziken grunted, still trying to move.

Its brown-haired trainer didn't even notice how uncomfortable it suddenly got, calling out for an attack, "Blaziken, use Double Kick!"

_**Blaze… Blaziken!**_ It cried, beginning to sweat and pant. It was really struggling to move and do as its trainer instructed, but it was near impossible.

"Alright, if she wants a Double Kick, we'll _give_ her a Double Kick!" the Cacturne-clad adult laughed, moving his fingers so that Blaziken turned to face May and jumped up into the air.

"Aaah! Blaziken, what're you doing!?" she exclaimed, backing out of the way before her Pokémon's two kicks could hit her.

_**Blaze!!**_ May stopped and stared for a moment, seeing something shine in midair. Her eyes went wide as she jumped back to dodge another of her Blaziken's Double Kicks.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Meanwhile… -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"_What_ is May's Blaziken doing?!" Brendan asked, standing away from the wall with his feet spread out like he'd run off to the stage any second.

"I don't know, but it's pretty obvious this isn't what she'd had in mind for her Appeal. I don't think Lillian or the Judges have realized that yet, though." Anissa pointed out, smirking and holding back her urge to laugh, "With how gracefully she's dodging and all, you'd think that she'd planned this."

Drew's eyes narrowed as he watched May's eyes catch onto the light of realization. He too had seen the shine of strings coming down from the ceiling. Pushing himself away from the wall, he walked away from the group silently, knowing that they wouldn't notice him since they were too preoccupied with the show May and her Blaziken were putting on.

As soon as he'd reached the Back Room, he looked up at the ceiling and, sure enough, saw Harley pulling off his sad old trick of using Ariados' webs. He obviously came up with a new way to use them, though. Glaring, he was half-tempted to call out Roselia or Absol to cut the threads, but he couldn't do that… Ariados could very quickly tie those threads together as they fall into a net and catch Blaziken _and_ May.

That would more than definitely ruin the performance, so Drew took a frustrated deep breath and leaned against the door frame that led out to the stage.

_Sorry, May, but you're gonna have to handle this one yourself. You should already know what's going on, so cook some idea up in that ramen-filled head of yours to save your Appeal._

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

Doing a back flip to dodge another kick, May was now far enough so it'd take more than a few seconds for her Pokémon to get to her. Her bright sapphire eyes looked up toward the ceiling without her moving her head, and she was able to see the flashes of light green color that meant Harley had something to do with this.

Deciding to turn this into a wonderfully short finish, she smiled uneasily, taking one step back as she called out a command, "Blaziken, use Sunny Day!"

_**Blaze!**_ Blaziken nodded without difficulty, its eyes glowing a light, transparent orange.

"Hmph; what good's that going to do her?" Harley mumbled, but then all the stage lights that were around and above him began to grow brighter and brighter. His vision was almost blinded as he let out a yell, "Aaah! My eyes!"

May smirked at the reaction she could see from the girly-man, winking at her Pokémon, "Alright, let's use Blaze Kick and then Fire Spin!"

Blaziken hopped up into the air, its legs beginning to catch on fire as the flames at its wrists flared out. The threads that had limited its control on itself too caught flame, the fire beginning to follow the web up to the ceiling.

May, however, couldn't have anybody notice them. If they did, then the Judges may get the wrong idea and think that she was cheating. It was now that Blaziken looked up toward the ceiling and opened its mouth to let out Fire Spin.

The flames spun around in a deadly tornado, spiraling up and up… until they reached the top of the ceiling. Harley and Ariados let out screams as they tried to get out of the way, but didn't make it. The fire burnt through them, leaving them immobile and smoking.

When at last Blaziken put its Fire Spin to a stop, everyone burst out clapping. May blinked, looking around. _Why are they all clapping…?_ She thought, looking over to the group. All of her friends were smiling at her, but one of them was missing. Turning her head toward the Back Room, she suppressed a joyful gasp when she saw Drew leaning against the door frame and clapping, smiling at her.

Just his being there made her feel so special that a light blush rose upon her cheeks as a brilliant smile came over her. She turned abruptly when MC Lillian put her arm around her shoulder and pulled her toward the Judges' Circle.

"Now _that_ kept me on my toes! What did the Judges think?"

Mr. Contesta was leaning over his podium toward them, "Great good Gods! Your skill with dodging your Blaziken's moves were beyond amazing! You looked like you were dancing! And your Pokémon's Fire attacks were simply outstanding!"

Mr. Sukizo's non-existent eyes were wide, "Purely remarkable!"

Nurse Joy was also in awe, "Did you plan this? Was this what you and your Blaziken were practicing? Because I don't think you could have pulled this wonderful display of talent off the top of your head!"

May sweatdropped; now, she was _definitely_ not going to tell them that she didn't plan that to happen. Apparently, her acting skills were a lot better than she'd thought!

"Now, then! What's the score?"

Mr. Contesta: 10

Mr. Sukizo: 10

Nurse Joy: 10

May gasped in surprise and delight; with Harley's attempt to ruin her Appeal, he'd actually helped her get the best score ever! She looked to Lillian who was motioning toward her for the audience.

"Well, would ya look at this, Folks? We got ourselves our second Perfect Score! Now it's Anissa DeMont and May Maple in the lead! I wonder if any of the next Coordinators will be able to join them!"

Clapping continued until May was back in the Back Room with her Blaziken securely in its pokéball, beside Drew, who'd probably been waiting for her. She put her hands behind her back, smiling cutely with a slight blush upon her face.

"So… Drew… what'd you think?"

The green-haired Coordinator smirked, "You did pretty well… for a girl who nearly ruined it all."

"WHAT!? I wasn't going to ruin it! Harley was the one who tried to do it!!" she snapped.

He merely flicked his bangs, raising an eyebrow at her, "Yeah, I noticed… I saw the threads a while before you did. I was _wondering_ when you'd catch on." Seeing her fuming got him into saying what he'd actually thought now, "But… when you did, everything else went on pretty smoothly."

"Huh…?" May blinked, watching him.

Drew pulled out a rose from his pocket, holding it out to her with the same smile on his face as earlier, "You did a great job… Definitely worth that perfect score."

The girl would never understand his sudden changes in attitude, but she took the rose, anyway. She smiled at him before motioning for him to follow her back out of the Back Room to where the group still awaited her.

Upon reaching the spot, May was only barely given a warning by Brendan's sudden shout of "MAY, WATCH OUT!" Her eyes went wide as her smile widened and a cheerful laughter erupted from inside of her when Wally literally flung himself at her in a hug.

"You were AMAZING! You looked so graceful! Such elegance! Such poise! Such—"

Anissa pulled him from the back of his collar, away from May, "C'mon, Wally, give the girl some space!"

"Thanks, 'Nissa; I don't know what I'd have done if he tried to come up with another synonym for 'graceful.'" Fordé snickered, re-entering the area when he'd seen the last puddle of water evaporate.

May just giggled, shaking her head before looking to Anissa, "What did _you_ think, Anissa? We're both the only ones with perfect scores right now!"

"That little act up there didn't fool me, May. I know that wasn't planned." The older girl explained, tilting her head to the side and grinning down at her, "It was actually pretty fun to see your reactions to everything that wasn't expected to happen. All in all… I think they gave you the right score."

The young brunette beamed at the compliment, pulling her hands together to her chest and attempting to contain her enthusiasm, "Thank you! So much!"

Brendan blinked, looking around their group. Picking up his hand, he counted something on his fingers as he looked around again. Wally noticed this and approached his best friend.

"What're you doing, Brendan?"

"Well, there were only supposed to be 24 Coordinators appealing today, right? You were first... I went 3rd… Anissa went somewhere around 7th or 8th… And since we were talking so much, I didn't keep track of what number May was just now." He looked to his female best friend, "May, what contestant were you just now?"

"As a matter of fact, I was number 22…" Everyone froze; only two of them had not gone up to appeal yet and there were only two spots left in the Singles Appeal Stage.

"Fordé Sourentis! Last call!" MC Lillian called, looking around.

"AAAAAH!!!!!" the trainer of fire screamed, making the whole hall fall silent as he dashed down the stairs, through the Back Room and onto the stage. Upon entering the Stage area, though, he tripped.

He fell face first, clumsily getting back to his feet and putting a hand behind his head as he laughed embarrassedly, "S-sorry… I was talking something over with my friends."

The crowd was snickering at him, and Lillian just winked at him, signaling for him to start his Appeal. The redhead nodded, a determined grin settling on his face as he pulled out a pokéball and tossed it up into the air.

"Flareon, I choose you!"

The bright white beam shot out of the ball, but instead of materializing the Pokémon, a sphere of flames appeared. Everyone watched as the huge fireball flew down toward the center of the stage and then scattered into tinier fire sparks that went in every direction. Flareon landed in its spot on all fours with the red sparks all coming from it.

The audience clapped at its entrance, which was much more beautiful than its trainer's entrance. Fordé, however, went on to give them the show he'd planned. Pulling out a red hula-hoop from the Back Room, he came back out and threw it up into the air.

"Fire Spin!"

_**Flaaa!**_ Flareon cried, the spiral of flames coming out from its mouth and doing small spirals all the way around the large hoop. It was then that it ran toward the side of the stage, only to do a quick U-turn and hop up _through_ the flaming hula-hoop, turning at an angle and letting out a happy yip.

As the object neared the ground, the trainer gave out another command, "Tail Whip!"

Flareon landed on the ground lightly before jumping back up and spinning around. Its huge tail had began to glow a bit as it spun and **whack**ed it back into the air.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+- Meanwhile… -+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

"Wow… Watching Fordé's act is like watching the circus!" May said as she leaned over the seats in front of her in awe, "I think I actually saw this once!"

Anissa smiled pleasantly at the younger girl, "It wouldn't be surprising… Fordé's father worked for a traveling circus, don't y'know? He learned a lot of his appealing acts from watching his father and the troupe."

"Really? How cool!"

Fordé smiled as he picked up a hand to point at the hoo-la-hoop, "Fire Spin, one more time!"

_**Flareon! Flaaa!!**_ The Flame Pokémon hopped up into the air and opened its mouth, the flames pouring out in larger spirals now. Once the first huge circle of fire reached the huge hoop, it seemed to catch to it and hold it up in the air. It smiled as it spun its head, controlling the flames and making the object that was afire fly about, over the audience.

_Just_ out of the crowd's reach, the Fire Eeveelution waited for a nod of approval from its trainer before it yanked the 'fire rope' upward, throwing the hoo-la-hoop into the air again. Now, it got up on its hind legs and jumped up as high as it could, doing a back flip before going clear through the still-flaming hoop. Having gone through it, Flareon itself actually seemed to catch on fire. Its whole body was burning in a red and orange glow, and the object it'd been acting with suddenly disintegrated from the intenseness of the heat.

Spinning around abruptly in mid-air, Flareon formed what could be thought to be a Flame Wheel, before it finally landed back on the stage floor. **BOOM!** An explosion occurred when it came into contact with it, however. Black smoke engulfed the stage, and nothing was visible for a moment.

"What happened?? Is Fordé okay? Anissa, is this a part of the show?" both Wally and May kept questioning in unison.

The dirty blonde-haired girl just laughed, winking at them before pointing off to the stage, "Look for yourselves!"

The smoke was beginning to clear, and Flareon was standing beside its master with a satisfied smile on its face. Fordé was bent down to its right side and petting it affectionately on the head.

"And that did it! Great job, Fordé!" MC Lillian exclaimed, just as excited as May had been earlier. She turned and looked off toward the judges. By now, the audience and the judges didn't have to hear her speak to know what was supposed to happen next.

"Your appeal was definitely one of the most entertaining ones I've seen yet! I felt like I was a small boy again, watching the circus on Saturday with my friends! Very well done!" Mr. Contesta complimented, smiling wearily.

"Only one word could describe it… Remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo exclaimed, a wide smile on his round face.

"I've seen many circuses, and I think that this is very comparable to one such troupe I saw around five or six years ago… Troupe Inferno, I believe it was called. It was the same, but different. I love how you made your own routine out of it!" Nurse Joy clapped her hands together as if she were a younger girl again.

"Thank you very much…" Fordé thanked, putting a hand behind his head as he stood back up straight and laughed embarrassedly.

"Now, then! How about the scores?"

Mr. Contesta: 9

Mr. Sukizo: 10

Nurse Joy: 9

"And that makes for a total of 28 points! Great job, Fordé!" Lillian laughed, swatting her orange hair behind her as she looked back to the audience and winked, "And with this act done, that means that there's only one act left!"

The fiery-haired trainer returned his Flareon to its pokéball before exiting stage-right and going back on up to his friends. Before the two predicted enthusiasts could tackle him, he easily stepped out of the way, watching as Wally and May rolled down the steps. He opened his mouth, letting out a loud laughter as he was just about to make a comment about them being too slow for him, but he was smacked upside the head.

He turned his head, seeing Anissa beside him and catching her hand falling back to her side from hitting him. He blinked his light green eyes at her, confused.

"I really don't think that was a very good idea, Fire Flash... Showing off like that is gonna cost ya." The girl explained, shaking her head.

"Huh?" he looked back down the steps, only to see Wally and May running back up the steps toward him, but with larger stars in their eyes. He made a frightened look as he heard their questions of 'How'd you do that?!' and 'You're so fast! When'd you learn to do that??' Normally, he would have been basking in their praise, but these two were _scary_, "Hide me!!"

He turned around to hide behind the girl, bending down so that her height could conceal him, but fear was gripping him tighter as he realized how much closer they were getting, "Aaah, screw it!!" Fordé stood back up and turned around, high-tailing it out of the room.

"What the… What's _his_ problem?" Brendan asked, raising an eyebrow as he watched their friend dash down the hallway and off toward the rooms.

"I'm not even going to answer that…" Drew mumbled inaudibly, his hands in his pockets as he pushed away from the wall he'd been leaning on again.

"You say something, _Grasshead_?"

The green-haired Coordinator's eyes snapped open narrowly, gleaming defiantly at the other boy, "Nothing… nothing at all, _Snowhead_."

"Alright! We've saved the best for last, People! So now, we're gonna go ahead and bring out the final Coordinator of the day… Drew Warren!" MC Lillian exclaimed into the microphone, earning loud cheers and squeals from the females in the audience.

A smirk came to his lips as he took a few steps toward the stairs, only to be stopped by May standing in front of him, "Can I help you?"

The brunette smiled shyly, taking one step toward him and putting her arms around his neck. Drew's eyes went wide as he was pulled into the gentle hug from the girl, a light blush coating his cheeks as he heard her coo into his ear.

"Do your best…"

He was barely able to place his arms around her waist in a short return-hug, when he heard the orange-haired MC clear her throat exaggeratedly. He pulled himself out of May's arms and smirked at her, "Do I do anything less?"

Succeeding in making her smile brighten with reassurance, he slowly walked down the stairs toward the Back Room. He could hear his Rival mutter audibly behind him.

"Let's see you beat a 29, Grasshead…"

_Oh, you'll see more than that, Snowy… **Much** more..._

_

* * *

_

Emerald's Nonsense:

It was just... _lying_ there... o.o; I noticed how many Chapters I'd written and then how many I'd posted and thought, "Gaaah, what the hell?" So, here you go. Please, be aware that I'm **ob_sessed_** with .hack//G.U., so this fic is on temporary _Hiatus_. XP

Sorry, Guys! But once I see that an ample amount of time has elapsed since the posting of this Chapter, I'll cough up Chapter 13, because it _is_ finished, as well. XD


	13. 13: Narrow Success

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does _not_ own Pokémon, or anything else, for that matter. Well... except for the Plot.

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Sorry it's been so long, but I'm still tied up with school. The holidays are up and I've got lots of time. I'm working on **Black Velvet**, and I'm sorry for being unable to continue this fic. I'm a little out of Pokémon at the moment... I'll see what I can do about the next chapter once I finish my KH2 fic.

Enjoy!

* * *

: Fragment No. 13 :

_Narrow Success_

Drew had his hands in his pockets as he descended the steps, coming up to the side of the stage and hopping up onto it. He didn't want to be like all the other Coordinators who went through the Back Room… He wanted to be different! Making sure that every eye in the Contest Hall was on him, he pulled out a pokéball.

Upon reaching center stage, he hopped up into the air and tossed the red-and-white pokéball up into the air, "You're up, Arcanine!"

_**Arrr!**_ Came a loud bark as the huge white light formed into the Legendary Pokémon, Arcanine. The enormous dog-like Pokémon landed beside its trainer, sitting on its hind legs obediently and wagging its huge tail.

May gasped from their spot near the hallway, leaning over the seats again to get as close a look as she could, "It's an Arcanine! When did Drew catch _that_?"

"Obviously when you weren't looking, May!" Fordé laughed and folded his arms, sitting in a seat he stole from an audience member who got annoyed by their constant commentary, "It looks really healthy, too… but I wouldn't expect anything less from _him_."

The green-haired Coordinator looked over his shoulder to the MC, receiving a nod in reply. He smirked arrogantly as he pulled his right hand out of his pocket and snapped his fingers.

Arcanine instantly got to its feet, looking to him for a command, "Extremespeed!"

_**Arrrc!**_ It began running around in a huge circle, growing faster and faster each second. After a moment, all onlookers could see was a burnt orange blur going around in circles.

"And Arcanine starts with a speedy Extremespeed! Look at it go!" MC Lillian exclaimed, watching with just as much excitement as everyone else.

"Heh…" Drew chuckled, making another command, "Now, keep up that pace and use Flame Wheel!"

The Legendary Pokémon was still not visible to the human eye when it suddenly burst into flames. Keeping its spinning in the same spot, it literally created a ring of fire on the floor.

"Oh, wow! That's really cool! Don't you think so, Brendan?" the always-cheery Wally Anderson asked his best friend, smiling.

"Yeah… It's _okay_…" the white-haired trainer mumbled, watching with a look of mild surprise on his face, _That Arcanine's pretty impressive… I guess Drew's better at this than I originally thought._

Drew caught a glimpse of that expression on his rival's face, his smirk widened for a moment before turning into a determined smile, "Alright, switch to Fire Spin!"

_**Arrrrc!!**_ It cried as it hopped up into the middle of the ring of fire and opened its mouth toward the ground. A small fireball formed between its jaws, but as soon as it was shot out of its mouth, Arcanine was sent shooting up toward the ceiling from the strength of the attack.

A fiery tornado was now on the inside of the ring of fire, which was actually _still_ spinning along on its own thanks to the speed the Pokémon had been going at. When Arcanine closed its mouth after creating a huge enough twister, it fell downward and wound up going _inside_ of it.

Many gasps were heard in the ground as they watched from afar as a dark figure inside of the flames was slowly falling… falling…

"Drew! You get Arcanine out of there this _second_!!" the brunette Coordinator shouted, horror on her face, _How could he do this? To his own Pokémon! I know it's a Fire-type and all, but it can still get burnt by its own flames…_

The green-haired Coordinator's eyes narrowed, but he did nothing until a moment later, "Arcanine, use Roar!"

Arcanine's outline stopped in the very center of the twister, a growling easily heard until it grew to its loudest, _**ARRRRRRRR!!**_

The firestorm ceased from the powerful Roar, dispersing into the air. The Legendary Pokémon did a front flip as it fell the rest of the way to the ground, landing noiselessly on its massive paws in a crouching position. It slowly stood up straight, steam from the intensity of its flames rising from its body. Putting its four paws altogether; it raised its head and let out a mighty Howl of triumph.

The crowd erupted in cheers and claps, watching as Drew and his Arcanine bowed to them. MC Lillian jumped up and pumped her fist into the air.

"Now _that_ is what I call entertainment! Great job, Drew! Let's see what our Judges had to say!"

"Definitely something I could get used to seeing! Many of the other Coordinators who won't move on to the next rounds should look to your performance as an example of what they _want_ to achieve." Mr. Contesta complimented, bowing his head in respect to the experienced Coordinator.

"It could be called nothing _but_ remarkable!" Mr. Sukizo laughed.

Nurse Joy made an uncertain look, "The performance was definitely eye-catching and amazing to watch, but your Arcanine could have gotten badly injured by entering its Fire Spin! You're only lucky that it got away with a few minor burns!"

Drew winced; great, he was being scolded by a nurse, _just_ great… The orange-haired MC gave him a look of sympathy before calling out for the scores to be issued.

Mr. Contesta: 10

Mr. Sukizo: 10

Nurse Joy: 9

"And that earns you're a total of 29 points! We'll see if you make it to the next round later, but right now, it's time to clear the stage!" Lillian explained, jumping in between Nurse Joy and Mr. Sukizo.

Drew and Arcanine looked at each other for a moment, but then the Coordinator shrugged and hopped off of the stage, his Pokémon following behind him. When the two made it to the group, the double-glomp he was expecting didn't come.

He blinked his emerald eyes when Wally came up to him and shook his hand over and over again, whispering to him, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I really loved your act, but May doesn't seem too happy, so… yeah."

He raised an eyebrow, lightly brushing Wally aside to look over to the girl he was talking about. Said-brunette rushed forward, going past the two boys and stopping at Arcanine's side.

"Aww… Are you okay, Arcanine? Didn't that last move _hurt_?" she asked, petting it gently where it seemed to have been burnt. Pulling out a green-colored spray bottle, she looked to its eyes with sympathy, "This'll sting just a little bit, but it'll help make it feel better, okay?"

Arcanine nodded its huge head shortly, knowing exactly what kind of potion it was. During the routine practices it did with Drew, the green-haired Coordinator always pulled out that green bottle.

May lightly sprayed the Burn Heal over the Legendary Pokémon's burns. It winced a bit, but stood still as well as it could. When she was finished, the huge dog looked quite well and happy.

"There… isn't that better?"

_**Arr!**_ It barked, licking the girl's cheek in thanks. She giggled, petting it again. Its trainer approached her from the side, and it was then that she chose to address him.

"You have a great Arcanine, Drew." She looked at him out the corner of her eye and glared, "You need to stop being so hard on your Pokémon… They might start disliking you."

"I _suppose_ I'll keep that in mind." Drew said sarcastically, rolling his eyes.

May growled, turning to face him completely, "You know what!? You're still the big jerk that I met six years ago!! You don't deserve an Arcanine like this!"

"Huh?!" his eyes went wide with surprise, feeling as if a lightning bolt just struck through him, _How can she say that? I still got into the next round…_

The brunette turned around and walked out to the hallway, followed by a sympathetic Wally. Brendan smirked at Drew.

"Your act was awesome, but guess what?"

"_What_?" Drew snapped, glaring.

"_I win_." The snow-haired boy said smugly before following after May and Wally.

The normally arrogant Coordinator sighed angrily, clenching his fists. Anissa got up from her seat and faced him.

"Don't feel so bad, Drew. Brendan only won the round, not the war." She walked up to his side and put her right hand on his left shoulder, winking, "May will come around… She always does, doesn't she?"

The green-haired teen nodded shortly, giving her enough of an answer to remove her hand and walk out into the hall to look for Fordé.

_TBC..._


	14. 14: Incorrect Harmony

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Pokémon, or any of the other people, things, etc., etc. that may appear in this fic that you find familiar from the show. However, she does own Fordé Sourentis, Anissa DeMont, and a certain mysterious trainer that likes to pick on May.

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

I'M BAAAAAACK!!

Guess what? 209 Reviews and a year later... I'VE COME BACK INTO POKÉMON! And I'm back MAY & DREW STYLE, People!

I was actually going to start writing another Contestshipping fic, but I decided to finish up this particular chapter first before I started on _another one_. XD!

So many Reviews... and the particularly good Reviews came from a few of my favorite people, like Galbinus, HappiBunny1994, A Rose for me-A Rose for you, AlmightyAngel (who reviewed EVERY SINGLE CHAPTER in a row! XD! AWESOME!), Baronfly, and several others who have continued to review more than once. X3!! YOU MAKE ME SMILE!!

... I'm pretty sure this one's longer than Frag.#13. XD!

Frag.#13 was 4 pages long... and this one's 9 pages. X3!

ENJOY!

* * *

: **Fragment No. 14** :

_**Incorrect Harmony**_

"May!!" Wally cried, gasping for breath as he tried to keep up with his female childhood friend, "May, slow down!!"

May came to an abrupt halt, realizing that she had no idea where she was going. She sighed in frustration; why did this Contest Hall have to be so huge? With how large it was, you'd think they tore down all of the Petalburg Woods just to build it… but _no_, they had to go _through_ the freaking woods just to _find_ it!

Wally turned the corner, sliding a few inches before stopping himself. He stood exactly three yards away from her, well… not really standing, but hunched over as he tried to catch his breath.

"Why did you… run off… like that?" he panted, eyes closed as he did so.

Now the girl felt awful; she knew her friend wasn't the healthiest person in the world and she'd literally pushed him past his limits. She frowned, looking into her yellow waist pack and pulling out a bottle of Dasani mineral water. Taking one step forward, she had to stop because she heard a familiar cry echo from back down the hallway.

"May! Wally!!" it shouted.

Wally stood up straight and turned at a 90 degree angle, only to be ran into by the third member of their childhood trio. Thanks to the speed that Brendan had been dashing at, the two boys tumbled to the tile floor, Brendan on top of Wally.

May blinked, staring at their position until an old memory clicked in her head. She remembered one time… it was Brendan's birthday and the two boys had been playing upstairs in his room while she was helping his mom get the dining room ready for him. When they were ready, the two went to the foot of the stairs and called them both down.

The two boys were in such a hurry to get down to the birthday cake that they were fighting each other as they made it to the stairs, resulting in the both of them _falling_ like a huge snowball down the way, only to land on the rug in front of Mrs. Birch and herself. All Brendan and Wally did was laugh, saying they were alright but the cake would make them feel even better.

She laughed at the memory, earning curious stares from the two. Leaning forward a bit, she held out her hand to Brendan, who was probably crushing poor Wally under his weight.

The white-haired boy blushed lightly, taking the girl's hand and pulling himself up. This allowed the smaller boy to push himself to sit on his legs, looking up at them.

"Can I have some water, please?"

May giggled, nodding as she handed him the Dasani water bottle that'd been in her left hand. The boy gratefully took it and drank as much of it as he could, which wasn't much. Even though he was mostly unhealthy and water was the only thing that could help him _most_, he just couldn't bring himself to drink a lot of it.

"So… what's up? Why'd you run? We don't even know if we made it to the next round or not." Brendan pointed out, bringing his left arm up so his hand could scratch the back of his head.

She looked down at the floor, blushing in embarrassment; why _did_ she run? It could only have been because of Drew's obvious lack of love toward his Pokémon during routines. All she could do, though, was shake her head.

"It's just that… Drew can make me so mad, sometimes. He has the nicest Pokémon I've ever met, but… sometimes, I wonder if he appreciates them." She admitted, looking back to Brendan and Wally, "I've seen the way he trains his Pokémon for routines… and if they don't get it right, he gets angry with them and makes them do it over and over again, even if it hurts them."

The golden yellow-haired boy got up from the floor and stood beside Brendan, watching with a worried look on his face.

"Seriously? I didn't know… Drew was like _that_…"

May shook her head again, "That was back during the Kanto Grand Festival about five or six years ago. I've actually dropped in to see him while he trained a few times lately, and I haven't seen him act like that anymore."

"Let me get this straight, then… You think he could be training his Pokémon in that negative-fashion when you're not looking? Or maybe he's like that _just_ with Arcanine because it was literally his secret Pokémon? 'Cause even _you_ didn't seem to know he had one of those." Brendan pointed out, bringing his hand back down to his side.

She sighed as she looked downward at the clean, light blue tiles of the floor, "I… I don't know… You're right, though; I didn't know Drew had an Arcanine… and I thought that he'd broken that old habit of pushing his Pokémon so much… but now, I don't know _what_ to think."

Wally's look of concern deepened as he leaned forward and bent his knees to take him a bit lower so that he could look up at May's troubled face, "You're really mad at Drew right now, aren't you, May?"

All she could do was nod in reply, but this gave Brendan an idea. The boy clad in green, black, and orange got down on one knee and look up at her, as well. His light eyes looked fondly into her sapphire ones, offering a comfort that only he, one of her childhood friends, could give.

"You're both sharing a room, right? Maybe you should move into our room to relieve some stress for a while." He suggested.

"But, Brendan… we only have 2 beds in our room." The golden yellow-haired boy reminded, blinking innocently.

Brendan also blinked, thinking of mentioning the possibility of May sharing his bed. His face grew warm and red, but he closed his eyes and faced his head away.

"She could use my bed… I've still got my sleeping bag."

"… but wouldn't that be indecent? Having a girl in a room with two boys? I mean, sure we've have sleepovers when we were little and all, but…" Wally was interrupted by his best friend, whose face could _not_ have gotten any redder.

"They've got May roomed up with Drew! A _GUY_! What's wrong with…"

"But it'd be _two_ guys, which wouldn't look good on May, now, would it?" a new voice joined in.

The three of them turned to look in the direction of which they'd all come from, only to see their other friends Anissa and Fordé standing there. It'd been Anissa DeMont who'd spoken, her left hand on her hip as the other one just hung at her side.

"A-Anissa!" Brendan stuttered, staring at her in surprise; he didn't know what to make of this… He could tell that the DeMont girl supported Drew and May in some way, shape, or form… Having her around might ruin his chance to get May away from that jerk of a Treetop!

"Well, aren't I right?" she smirked, noticing how uncomfortable she'd made Professor Birch's son feel. She turned to look at May, her dirty blonde hair swaying at the movement as her dark blue eyes softened toward her, "May… if you really need to let off some steam and get away from Drew for the night, why don't you switch into my room? I'm sure Fordé wouldn't mind rooming with Drew…"

The fiery-haired boy who'd been named looked to Anissa with a childish look of protest, but was easily shot down by her serious glare. This made him flinch back a bit, but he sighed in defeat, hanging his head over and letting his spiky red hair fall over his face to hide it completely.

"Yeah… yeah, I don't mind." He said as nonchalantly as he could.

May smiled contentedly, nodding in return and bowing, "Thank you! Thank you so much, Fordé!" She turned around, "Okay, I'm gonna go get my stuff together in my room and then go to yours. See you in a few!"

With that said, she took off.

Wally giggled excitedly, bouncing up and down on his heels, "Yay! Our room is right next door to Anissa and Fordé's room, so that means that May will be closer to us!"

Groaning lazily, Fordé Sourentis dragged his feet off in the direction of his room, "Gaah… I guess I'll go get my stuff, too…"

As the redhead started off, Wally followed along with him, chattering delightedly in hopes of cheering the poor Fire-type trainer up. This left Anissa and Brendan alone in the hallway. The white-haired boy was looking down at the floor, nervous to look up at the other coordinator.

Anissa started walking, as well, but the moment she took a step passed the younger boy, she stopped and spoke, "I realize that I haven't known May as long as you, Wally, or Drew have… but I care about her, nonetheless. I want her to be happy… so don't assume that I'm choosing sides, because I'm not."

When she started walking again, the stunned expression on his face seemed frozen to it as he turned to watch after her. He was very, _very_ confused…

She picked up a hand and waved to him with the back of it without turning around, which led him to believe that she didn't support anything… She was just there to help when she thought it was necessary. Shrugging to himself, Brendan started walking off, slowly, in order to not catch up with the others.

He needed to think about what'd just happened…

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

May Maple scurried up to her assigned room, stopping in front of it and digging into her yellow waist pack for the keys. She moved aside everything in that mini purse, trying to find them.

"Grr… Where _are_ those keys!" she mumbled, ripping through her things and listening hard for a familiar jingling sound.

Before she could get any more irritated or she could find her keys, the door creaked open. The brunette blinked, looking straight ahead into the room, only to see a pair of pretty emerald eyes staring back at her. For a moment, she found herself entranced by those clear, sparkling gems; how could anything look so beautiful? The only thing was that staring into them like that… They seemed vaguely familiar.

"May…"

She snapped out of it when she heard the low voice say her name, only to realize that it'd been Drew's eyes she'd been staring into… and that it'd been he who'd opened the door for her. He was now looking at her with an unsure look, probably wondering if she was okay with him now.

May had half-expected him to totally ignore that scene and not care about her reactions earlier, but it didn't seem so… He was smirking or acting cocky or even making fun of her score by saying that the judges felt sorry for her; he was just… _quiet_. Quietly staring at her.

"Why did you open the…" she began, but was interrupted when the green-haired boy held onto the door with his right hand and leaned against it as his vacant left hand held up a pair of keys that had a Beautifly keychain on it.

This obviously meant that she'd forgotten to grab her keys this morning… May grabbed them and stuffed them into her open pack before closing it up and walking inside. The boy closed the door behind her, leaning back against it and watching her as she picked up her backpack and started picking up her stuff from her bedside table. He raised an eyebrow in her direction, confused as to what she was doing.

"What're you doing?"

The girl froze for a moment, suddenly feeling bad for what she was about to do. Would leaving him there by himself with Fordé really solve anything? As she'd been talking to the others and running back over here, she'd already lost all of the steam she'd produced from the anger she'd felt toward him, so what was the use of switching rooms now?

Taking a deep breath, she continued repacking everything into her backpack, "I… I'm switching rooms… I'll be with Anissa while Fordé comes to room with you."

She realized that Fordé was probably still packing or already on his way, anyway, so why should she waste his time by saying "Oh, nevermind; I changed my mind. I'm staying here"? The girl had already caused a bit of trouble earlier for everybody… and she didn't want to make it all for nothing.

Upon hearing what she'd said, Drew felt a stab through his heart, just like he had earlier when she'd yelled at him, "Wh-what?"

Having heard his voice crack, May paused for a moment. Her cheeks reddened in embarrassment as she looked down at her belongings sadly before looking at him with just as sorrowful a look, "I… I can't stay in here anymore, I… Y-you just… Why did you have to… and Arcanine…"

She couldn't finish a single sentence; it was too hard. Tears stung at her eyes, threatening to blur her vision. Looking back away from him in order to hide this fact, she shut her eyes tightly and tried to hide it and make herself seem angry to him.

Drew, however, wasn't sure if she was angry or sad; she was displaying two totally different emotions at once. He took a slow step forward, but then ran the rest of the way up to her. Standing directly behind her, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders and neck, holding her close to his chest.

It was May's turn to be surprised; what was he _doing_?

The green-haired boy embraced her from behind, his head beside hers to the point that his lips were to her right ear as he whispered to her, "Listen… I'm sorry about what I did. I didn't mean to get Arcanine hurt like that… I mean… I was just trying to make the Appeal look good… I felt like I had to make it look so much better than everybody else's… and I almost felt that I couldn't live up to the other Appeals."

May blinked, eyes wide; he was admitting what was going on in his head… How he felt during the contest… while he was up there… And why he did was he did. Drew Warren was _confessing_!

"I… I thought that if we went through with the Appeal like that, we'd get a high score for _sure_. I didn't mean for Arcanine to get burnt or anything…" he admitted, sighing in her ear and causing her to shiver slightly, "But… I'll tell you this; I wouldn't have had Arcanine do it at all if I didn't think he'd come out mostly unscathed."

The brunette girl felt as though her eyes had just opened to the truth; Drew didn't have Arcanine do the Appeal that way because he trained it to or he wanted to hurt it… but because he _believed_ in his Pokémon to make it look entertaining and not get extremely burnt to the point of serious injury.

The tears that she'd held back before began to make her vision become watery and unfocused, a tiny tear rolling over her cheek and falling down onto Drew's right sleeve, causing it to turn a shade darker. Picking up her hands and placing them over his wrists softly, her watery, dark blue eyes closed as she sniffled and smiled weakly.

"Drew…"

It was then, however, that there was a loud knocking at the door.

"Hey, Guys!! It's Fordé! I'm here already, so can somebody please open the door?" their friend called.

At the first knock, May's grip on Drew's wrist tightened so that she could force him away from her. She picked up her backpack and hurried for the door. As she reached out for the doorknob, her rival's voice stopped her in its tracks.

"May?"

Gulping, she turned around again to face him and smiled that weak smile that she hadn't shown him earlier, "I'm sorry, Drew… I… I understand you now, but… I'm still going."

The boy looked quite downcast as she turned around to open the door again. Unlocking the door, May quickly turned around and ran up to him, literally jumping into him and throwing her arms around him in a hug. Drew was very surprised by the sudden attack, but smiled, nonetheless, and hugged her back.

"Huh? Is the door unlocked now? I'm coming in!!" Fordé whined, the sound of the doorknob rattling snapping May away from Drew and getting her to stand next to the door.

"Thanks a lot, Fordé! I guess I'll see you guys later!" she bade them farewell and left, closing the door behind her.

As the door clicked shut, Drew felt himself wishing that the words "wait, don't go" had torn from his lips, but of course, his pride had come back into play and hadn't allowed it to happen. He sighed, looking over to his new roommate, who had just thrown his bag to the side of the bed and plopped down onto the mattress.

Fordé looked over to Drew, "Hey… You ever hear of 'Fire Wings'?"

This was going to be a long night…

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-

May had made it to Room 2 easily enough, dropping her backpack onto the bedside table and sitting down gently on the bed. Her eyes looked downward at the light blue carpet as her bare toes ran over it; she'd already changed into her thick, scarlet red pajamas and was currently just sitting there thinking about what'd happened. However, since she was thinking specifically about a certain green-haired coordinator, every few seconds she would catch herself staring at the jacket he'd lended to her earlier that she'd hung on the side of her bed.

Anissa DeMont laid on her stomach on her own bed, clad in velvety silver pajamas, casting her glance over to her new roommate and blinking in hopes that she'd move soon. When nothing happened for a few minutes, she heaved a long sigh and spoke.

"Okay… What's wrong?"

"Huh?" May snapped, not catching what the other girl had said, "What'd y'say?"

"I asked you what was wrong," she repeated, "From how you're acting, it's like you didn't want to swi—wait a minute... You made up with Drew, didn't you?"

The brunette's face burned as brightly as her pajamas, "A-ah?!"

Anissa laughed, "So, you did, then! Why didn't you say anything?"

"W-well… I didn't want to send lazy Fordé back here and get him annoyed at me… and I didn't want to make you made either, Anissa." The younger girl explained embarrassedly, "I made a fool of myself earlier by acting the way I did... I didn't understand what had made Drew tell Arcanine to do an Appeal like that, but now that he's told me, I get it…"

"Hmm… I see. Well, you two can move back together tomorrow, then—!" Anissa began, but was interrupted by the television instantly turning itself on.

Appearing on the TV screen was MC Lillian, holding onto her microphone and speaking enthusiastically into, "Coordinators! Now, I'll unveil to you the people who have made it to the next round! BEHOLD!"

She had reached her hand out in front of her and snapped her fingers, only to have the screen immediately change to show the 12 coordinators who would advance in the competition.

May jumped off of the bed and scrambled to sit on the floor next to Anissa's bed, seeing as the blonde's bed was directly in front of the TV.

The very first on the list was Anissa, and the second had come out to be May herself. The brunette let out an excited "YAY!" as the older girl just smiled and chuckled. Following them down the list were Drew, Brendan, Fordé, and Wally. May smiled; it'd been obvious that with all of their high scores, the group of friends would make it to the next round.

After showing the 12 contestants for a few moments longer, the screen changed to show Lillian again, "Okay! Here's the deal, Everybody; tomorrow is St. Patrick's Day! Since it's a holiday, tomorrow's festivities will not affect your scores in the Extreme Pokémon Contest, but there _will_ be a bonus St. Patrick's Day Appeal tomorrow!"

She laughed, spinning around in a full circle and winking at the people watching, "It's _totally_ optional; you don't have to sign-up for it, but it's gonna be wicked fun! The Appeals have to be in _doubles_, but that doesn't mean that you send out two of your Pokémon, Coordinators! It means that you get to choose a partner to enter with and show your St. Patrick's Day spirit with green Pokémon and the like!"

May blinked; they had to enter with a partner? Her mind instantly went to Drew, but she shook her head to clear his image. She couldn't ask him… especially after walking out on him like she did. Her next thought brought Brendan's image to her; he'd be fun to work with… It's not like they've ever double-teamed anybody before, so why not?

Smiling, she made up her mind; tomorrow, she'd ask Brendan to enter the St. Patrick's Day contest with her.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Hold on, People!" MC Lillian called, jumping up and down to get everyone's attention again, "Although this particular optional contest won't affect you in the main contest, there _will_ be a prize! The lovely **Shiny Stone**! Yes, the Shiny Stone… An item that can evolve certain kinds of Pokémon! So, coordinators, good luck tomorrow! And have a good night's sleep!"

_A Shiny Stone? That can… evolve a Roselia into a Roserade!!_ A smile grew bright and huge on her face as she thought of the perfect way to make it up to Drew for leaving, _I'll enter the contest and win the stone for Drew! Oh, but I'll have to make sure it's fine with Brendan… but I'm sure he won't mind!_

She giggled, getting up and going back over to her bed. She'd need to get some serious sleep if she was going to be in tip-top shape for tomorrow!

* * *

Emerald's Extra Nonsense:

XD! This is getting really fun to write again... I practically IGNORED my boyfriend because I wanted to write this up so much. XP! But anyway, it's a good thing that I wrote down all the ideas I got for this story while I was writing it the first time... I'm changing bits of it as we go, though...

AND DON'T WORRY! Drew will go back to being IC soon! XD! That lightning bolt that stuck him in Frag.#13 changed him for a little bit. XDDDD!

... I HOPE I DIDN'T OFFEND ANYONE WITH THE ST. PATRICK'S DAY IDEA! DX! It just coincidentally happened that way, so I'm sticking with it. I myself think that it's an okay idea. XP! So... I'm sorry, anyway.

OKAY, YOU CAN GO REVIEW NOW!


	15. 15: Partner

disclaimer: **Emerald Twin Blade** does not own Pokémon, or any of the people, things, etc. etc. that may appear in this fic that you find familiar from the show or games. However, certain characters, as well as the storyline, _do_ belong to her.

Emerald's Notes & Nonsense:

Surprised? I'll tell you what; _I_ sure am! 'Never thought I'd be updating this thing again... but, what do y'know, here I am! With an update! During the appropriate time frame, too... I'll be writing that St. Patrick's Day contest chapter later on today and, probably, during the unGodly hours of Saturday, March 17th, 2012.

Those of you who kept BoaR on your Story Alert list, thank you. It's been around 4 years since I updated this... and I _have_ gone back and reread the entire fic. I'm considering going back and revising it into my current style, though it hasn't necessarily changed all that much. The main focus hasn't changed, but the idea of where I want this plot to go _has_, so some things will need some serious fine-tuning.

The first part of this chapter was written 3 or 4 years ago, so the style's a little different... but I decided to keep what's there for what it is.

Didn't think I'd ever say this again, but have fun reading this brand-new chapter!

* * *

: Fragment No.15 :

_Partner_

_Who She Chooses_

* * *

Anissa DeMont sighed quietly to herself as she stared down at her hands, folded together on the table in front of her. She was sitting at a booth in the cafeteria as one of a handful of people who were actually up at 5:30 in the morning. Her dark blonde hair would flow over her shoulders to pool around her hands as her dark blue eyes stared unblinking at her shiny silver nail polish. Her upper body was bunched over the table so that passersby could not see that it was her through her long, thick hair.

"Anissa."

At the sound of her name, the teenager shot up to sit straight, turning her head so quickly that her hair swayed around her before settling back down. Her best friend Fordé Sourentis stood there in torn blue jeans, a bright green T-shirt and his favorite red blazer. His left arm was held upward so that the palm of his hand could rub his eye lazily, his other green eye was half-closed as it looked at her. His mouth opened up wide in a yawn as he dragged himself into the seat in front of her.

"Alright, what's the problem? What'd you wake me up at five in the god forsaken morning for?" he said, leaning back against the booth wall and laying his arms out along the top edge with his eyes closed.

Anissa's eyes had followed her friend as he sat, but after he'd asked his questions, she looked down at her hands thoughtfully, staying quiet as she fiddled with her thumbs. One of Fordé's eyes peeked open at her before he blinked both open and pushed himself to lean forward. His elbows _**thumped**_ onto the table as he threaded his fingers together and lay his chin upon them, his emerald hues softened as he noticed her outfit.

"So… you're wearing _her_ clothes, now… I take it you had a dream about her, then?"

The blonde-haired girl was wearing a pure green polo shirt that had some sort of emblem over the left breast. It looked like a Luxury Pokéball, stitched in total black with green markings instead of red, but it also had a large diamond stitched in a thicker black material behind it. Anissa picked up her right hand and placed it over the patch, her eyes narrowing slightly as she continued looking down at her other hand.

"Aurelia… She hasn't appeared to me in a dream for a long time, Fordé. Normally, I would just give myself a good cry and feel better, but… this time, something's a little off." She informed, her fingers closing over the sign.

"Something's off? Like what? What happened?" He asked softly, half-knowing what was going on.

"I don't know… I… I saw her in the Petalburg Woods somewhere… with her Murkrow and her Houndoom. But she wasn't talking and I couldn't see her eyes…" she explained, her eyes closing tightly as she tried to remember, "Her Pokémon were all looking at her so sadly… and all she did was sit there quietly, like she couldn't move or… like she wasn't really there…"

Her voice had cracked; by now, tears had swollen in her eyes. The moment she reopened those sapphire hues, two drops of water spilt unevenly over her cheeks before she closed them again and picking up both of her hands to cover her face from his view.

Fordé immediately got up from where he'd been sitting, walking over to the other side and sitting down beside her, putting his right arm around her and pulling her close to him in a half-embrace. Anissa buried her crying face into his jacket, her shoulders shaking as she tried to control her breathing. His arm curled around her shoulder and head so that his hand rested on the top of her hair. He lowered his head to lay his cheek over her head, bright red bangs covering over his eyes in the process.

"It's alright, Anissa… It was just a dream, okay?" he reassured her, "Aurelia's probably in heaven right now, watching over us from there, y'know? Wherever she is, we know that she's happy."

"That's just it, Fordé! She's _not_ happy!" she cried, managing to get a hold of herself before pulling herself away to look up at him, "I think that was why I dreamt what I did… She's still here and she's not happy! She needs _help_, Fordé! _Our_ help!"

The older boy's hand on her head ruffled her hair gently, eliciting a confused look from her, "I know that you miss her, 'Nissa… I do, too, but don't take your dreams so seriously. Aurelia died four years ago on a mission in Oldale Town, end of story. She was a great Pokémon Ranger, but… some times, even the Rangers can't handle it."

The girl bit her lip at the terrible thought that such an accomplished Pokémon Ranger could ever be defeated to the point of death. Her intense feelings built up in her heart, causing her to blurt out her thoughts as she threw herself into his chest again.

"BUT SHE HAD _DIALGA_! HOW COULD SOMEONE STRONG ENOUGH TO CATCH THE LEGEND OF TIME DIE SO EASILY!"

This time, Fordé put his arms completely around her, holding her close in hopes of comforting her. His eyes closed beneath their blood red veil, letting one tear of sorrow slide down the side of his face.

"Don't worry about it… We can't live in her memory forever, y'know… Besides, since it's still early, how about I get you some breakfast? I'll actually get off my ass, order and bring it here to you." He tried to change the subject, smiling pleasantly at her tearful expression.

For a moment, she was angry that he'd pushed aside the topic so easily, but a few seconds went by before she sniffled and smiled weakly at him, "Yeah… Thanks."

* * *

"Huh? Where've _you_ been all morning, Anissa?" May Maple asked, blinking as she watched her friend walk back into their room.

Anissa stopped after she'd closed the door behind her, looking at her temporary roommate's outfit. It seemed vaguely familiar… May was wearing a long, orange sleeveless that was currently unzipped with a short black polo shirt under that which showed her stomach. She wore black bike shorts and had a bright green waist pack replaced her dandelion-colored one. The brunette was currently brushing at her messy hair with a light red brush as she watched her.

"Huh… Why does that outfit look…?" the older girl asked, grinning slightly.

The younger looked down and then laughed, "Oh, this? I actually wore this around four years ago when I was in Johto for some contests… As for how it looks, I think it's kinda similar to what Brendan wears every day now…"

"So… you're going to ask _Brendan_ to enter today's contest with you?"

May looked downward as she put her brush on the side table, her blue eyes softening as a weak smile came to her, "Well… yeah. He's my childhood friend, after all… and I've been spending all of my time with Drew lately that I kind of feel like I'm distancing myself from him and Wally…"

Anissa could easily understand where she was coming from, nodding as she walked around her and sat on her bed, "Well, then… today is definitely going to have a great show!"

"Huh?" May blinked again, looking to her friend.

All the other did was wink, "Fordé's gonna come by with some brunch. You realize that it's already eleven-thirty? And that the contest is actually at four-thirty?"

"Are you _serious_?" the 16-year-old shouted in surprise, a hint of fear in her voice. If she didn't ask Brendan soon, then they wouldn't be able to sign up!

"Did somebody order breakfast for lunch?" Fordé's voice called over the door while he knocked loudly.

May quickly pulled her bright green bandana off of the side table and tied it around her head before watching as the door swung open. Instead of just a familiar redhead standing there, Brendan and Wally were standing behind him.

"Good morning!" Wally called cheerfully, skipping passed the other two boys and tackling May back onto her bed, "May! May! I have something I want to ask you!"

Anissa, feeling a sense of danger from how close Wally was to her roommate, nonchalantly took him by the back of his dark green dress shirt's collar and pulled him into her awaiting lap. A gentle-yet-warning smile came to her lips as she looked down at his blush of embarrassment, rendering him speechless.

"Wally, dear… Would you be my partner for the St. Patrick's Day Contest today? I've decided to enter for the fun of it, not necessarily to win, but it's up to you whether or not I even try…" she spoke aloud, but she lowered her face to be near his ear where she whispered harshly, "You can't refuse me; I won't _let_ you pair up with anybody else."

"O-okay… Ahm… N-nevermind, May." He stuttered, smiling nervously at his childhood friend from his seat on Anissa's lap.

Brendan put his orange-and-green gloved hands into the pockets of his black pants as he leaned back against the closed door, putting one orange, green, and black shoe against the wood. His steel grey eyes looked over to Fordé as he started opening up the several large bags of food from the McDonalds inside the cafeteria.

"Say, Fordé… Are you planning to enter the contest, too?"

The redhead looked over to the younger boy, shooting him a toothy grin, "Naa… I don't have a green Pokémon to enter with, anyway, y'know? All of my Pokémon are either black or red…"

"Hmm…" His eyes fell to the floor for a moment as he thought about everyone in the room; there were current 5 persons in the room, two of which were already partnered and one was not going to compete, that means…

His cheeks heated up as he raised his gaze to look over to May, only to catch her sapphire eyes looking back at him for a moment before she looked back down with a light blush that he was _barely_ able to see. He smiled, chuckling mentally before pushing himself off the wall and approaching her, bending down to sit next to her.

"Hey, May… Do you have a partner for the contest yet?" he asked casually, thanking whatever God there was out there that he didn't look as panicky as he felt.

The girl shook her head, smiling brightly at her childhood friend, "Nope! I was actually hoping to enter with _you_! Well… that is, if you want to?"

Brendan nodded excitedly, his cool smile widening, "Yeah! Of course I do!"

"Great! We'll go sign up after we eat, then!" May laughed as her stomach started growling loud enough for everyone to hear.

Everyone looked to Fordé, who was currently opening one bag, "Eh? Why's everybody… Oh, you want to know if I brought enough for May and for everybody else, right?"

He waved the several bags he'd brought in; about 7 big bags from the big Mickey D's. Two meals were in each bag, so that meant that five of the bags were for May. The girl squealed happily as she walked up and took the bags, laughing maniacally before stuffing a hash brown into her mouth.

* * *

To the surprise of the left over occupants in the Coordinators' living hallway, there was absolutely no sound coming from Room 7. Of course, they didn't know about the change in residents, so who could blame them?

Drew Warren was lying back on the top of his bed, sheets and pillows neatly made. His hands were behind his head, emerald green eyes staring up at the ceiling in concentration. Originally, he had been planning to ask May to join him for the St. Patrick's Day contest, but…

"_I'm sorry, Drew… I… I understand you now, but… I'm still going."_

The expression on her face was practically burned behind his eyelids, so he tried not to blink so much. When he did, however, the faint imprint of her downcast eyes and weak smile would flash before his eyes. A small scowl formed over his lips as he abruptly turned onto his side, his right hand cupping the back of his head and his other arm reaching out over the bed.

He had been so confident before… When he got up, Fordé was already gone, so he was able to easily shower and change. During that entire time, the green-haired Coordinator had been dead-set on going to May's new room and asking her to be his partner. The moment he had deemed himself ready to go and had plucked a red rose out of a vase he'd set up after she left, he looked at himself in the mirror and froze.

It was at that moment that he saw her unhappy face again. His mistake during his Singles Appeal… He had cleared everything up! She wasn't mad at him anymore!

_But she still left._

He had clenched his vacant fist, wanting to punch the mirror with all of his might. That, however, would not have been a smart thing to do, so he suppressed the urge.

Drew sighed heavily, staring at the rose that lay about an inch and a half from the tip of his outstretched fingers, "Why am I the one freaking out over what happened? I passed to the second round."

In all honesty, it was May's lack of knowledge that made him second guess himself. The truth was that Arcanine, known as the Legendary Pokémon, was able to handle living in molten lava for prolonged periods of time. There was absolutely no chance that its own Fire Spin could have damaged it horribly in comparison with _molten _freaking _lava_.

"Alright!" He whispered to himself, pulling himself up to sit and then to stand, "Gotta ask her… Even if she says no, it'll be fine, because _she's_ the one who's in the wrong!"

There was no way that the great Drew could be wrong!

At that moment, the door squeaked open. His red-haired roommate had entered, humming a song with a quick tempo as he hopping onto his bed.

Drew raised an eyebrow at him, greeting him slowly, "… _Hey_, Fordé…"

Fordé smiled over to him cheerily, "Oh, hey, Drew; didn't see you there."

This only served to increase the small ball of curiosity that had been growing within the green-haired Coordinator since he noticed that the literal circus freak had taken off early in the morning.

"Yeah… Where were you earlier?"

It was Fordé's turn to raise an eyebrow and he turned from lying on his stomach to his back, his long red hair going along with gravity as his head hung off the side of the bed. A wide smirk was on his face.

"Why do y'wanna know? –Ohh, I see! You're a control freak who likes to know about everything going on with the people in your general area!" He joked convincingly, squinting one abnormally green eye in amusement, "I don't like that kind of thing, so… I'll just keep it to myself."

Drew rolled his eyes, shaking his head as he turned back to pick up the rose and stare at it, "Whatever… I was just wondering since it looked like you left _really_ early. I mean, I woke up at six-thirty, which is generally pretty early."

The redhead shrugged, turning himself back right-side up as he looked up at his roommate, "Well, if y'gotta know… I was hanging with Anissa. She wasn't feelin' so great, so I got her some breakfast and took her back to her room."

Emerald green hues went wide as Fordé continued talking; he had gone to Anissa's room… meaning that he'd seen May already. His attention was completely focused on the other's words now.

"While I was at it, though, I went to buy some brunch, since I figured May would want a bite… or five."

Drew chuckled at the vision of how much that girl could eat.

"But, on my way back, I ran into Brendan and Wally."

_Oh, _great_; what the Hell does that Snowhead have to do with this story?_ He thought in irritation, placing the rose in his hand in a hidden pocket on the inside of his jacket.

"They came along with me 'cause they both wanted to ask May to join up for that green contest today, but, surprisingly, 'Nissa scared Wally into being her partner and then Brendan—"

Fordé was cut off when Drew's left fist collided sideways with the mirror, effectively causing a small crater of spider web-like cracks to become visible. A vein had popped on the side of his forehead as he slowly turned to face the redhead, a forced smile on his face as he tried very, _very_ hard to look unaffected by what he was just told.

"You don't say? Brendan's gonna work with May for the contest today?"

He did not bother waiting to hear the other's reply as he walked toward the door, exiting and slamming the door behind him.

"… Oh, _shit_." Was all Fordé could say.

* * *

_Why the _HELL_ is room two in the other corridor?_ Drew shouted in his head, rushing down the hallway in the fastest walk he could handle without full-on running, _How could she agree to that? To partnering up with that _loser_!_ He took a deep breath, trying to calm himself a little, _It's alright… Everything'll be fine. I'll just ask her to be _my_ partner and, of course, she'll choose me over him. Like always._

_Your act was awesome, but guess what?_ Brendan's voice echoed in his head, making his anger boil up again as he turned a corner, _I win._

He slowed slightly as the door reading **2** suddenly came open and out came the white-haired trainer, laughing cheerfully. His eye twitched as he quickened his pace again, his footsteps become loud.

Brendan looked out the corner of his eye, noticing the angry green-haired Coordinator stomping toward him. He laughed nervously, shutting the door in front of him quickly.

"_Ouch!_ Brendan, what was that for? Brendan, open the door!" came Wally's muffled whines, making the white-haired teen feel bad for what he just did.

"Just wait there for a bit, Wally; don't let anybody open the door." He whispered harshly through the door as he kept one hand flat on its wooden frame and had grey eyes trained on the furious green ones in front of him. He raised his voice, calling to the other, "Hey there, Drew! What's going on in your neck of the woods?"

Drew took a moment to mentally compose himself, part of his rage draining away from his face as he stopped a few feet away from the other. Emerald green orbs were glaring dangerously at Brendan, hands slipping into the pockets of his black pants.

"Not much… 'Heard you'll be competing in today's contest."

The other trainer smirked slightly, closing his eyes as he replied smugly, "Yeah, with _May_."

The rose Coordinator felt his eye twitch again in irritation; this guy _really_ pissed him off, but he decided not to let it show… not completely. He smiled coldly, shrugging, "I see… Have fun with that; I'm sure you won't place, though."

This caught Brendan off guard, making him look back at Drew in confusion, "_What_?"

"Yeah; between your mediocre coordinating and May's klutzy moves, there's no way either of you'll win." Drew answered in a matter-of-factly manner, his smile turning into a smirk, "Now, if you'll excuse me…"

He stepped closer to the other, the white-haired trainer backing up so that he had full access to the door. Drew flipped his bangs arrogantly, "See you around."

With that, he opened the door to room 2 and shut it behind him, smiling in satisfaction when he did. He looked around the room, finding the smiling and laughing faces of Anissa, Wally and May.

The first to notice him was Wally, who jumped and laughed, "Oh, Drew! This must mean it's okay to go outside now!"

The golden-haired trainer got up and started toward the door, lightly patting the newcomer's shoulder in a friendly way, "Don't sweat yesterday; it looks like May's over it."

Drew blinked at the other, feeling slightly refreshed at the idea of his biggest rival's best friend possibly being on his side. When the door shut behind Wally, he turned to the girls, who were looking at him expectantly.

May had been looking at him when he was looking the other way, but, now that he was looking back at her, she averted her sapphire blue hues down to her hands. They had been folded in her lap, but, now, her fingers were fidgeting a little.

Anissa noticed this sudden change in manner and took that as her cue to stand, "I think I'll go hang out with Wally… 'Need to come up with a routine now that we're a team."

The brunette looked quickly to her roommate, silently protesting, but all the blonde did was smile kindly before leaving the room, as well.

May gulped, looking in the opposite direction from where the only other inhabitant of the room was. Her cheeks were burning; how come she was feeling this way _now_?

"May…"

His soft voice, so close, had her head turn instantly to look at him. Pools of blue looked up into green as the teenaged boy slowly sat down beside her, minimal space separating their legs from touching. She looked away from him again, biting her lip.

What did he want? She could feel her heart pounding in her chest, in her head… It was so annoying! What did he expect from her, to have come to see her…

_He'll want to enter the contest with you._ The little voice inside of her head whispered knowingly. And, _oh_, how she wanted to enter with him… but…

The image of Brendan's embarrassed smile came to her mind; she had not paid much attention to her childhood friend since this whole competition began. It wasn't fair to her friend, who had come all this way to see her. Her hands clenched at her thoughts.

"May, come on…" Drew tried to get her attention again, reaching his left hand across to gently take her cheek and turn her face to look at him. Her cheek was soft and warm, and reddening rapidly.

Sapphire blue eyes had the look of a deer caught in headlights as he held her gaze; she knew he knew, and she… felt bad about it? The small Pride monster in his chest had him chuckle quietly at the poorly hidden emotion in her eyes.

"I know you're entering with Brendan… but, I want you to know that it's alright." He smiled encouragingly, "It's just a one-day contest… It's nothing too big."

The frightened look in May's eyes melted away as his gentle disposition calmed her, took away everything she was scared of. Now her heart was simply beating fast because of how close their faces were… Her face must have been as red as her old clothes as she stared up at him, wondering what he would do… what else he would say.

"I don't mind you performing with him for this holiday contest… but you have to promise me that you'll pair with me for the next Doubles contest." Drew whispered enticingly, his eyelids lowering as he drew closer to her. His lips ghosted against hers as he cooed, "Promise me…"

The brunette's eyes fluttered closed as she whispered back, barely audibly, "I promise."

There was a loud _**THUD**_ against the door outside, making May try to shove Drew away. The hand Drew had on her cheek instantly reached to her shoulder, holding her in place firmly as he quickly pushed his lips against hers.

"Hey! Visiting hours are over; May and I have to prac—" Brendan said as he opened the door and looked in, only to freeze when he saw what was happening.

May's hands were pressed over Drew's chest from when she tried to shove him, but, now, they were clenched into his black top, as though keeping him close. Her head was raised up, eyes closed and cheeks bright red as she willingly accepted a kiss from the green-haired Coordinator.

Drew held her in place for a few long seconds before slowly pulling their lips apart and opening his eyes to look at her face. He completely ignored the room's other occupant in favor of keeping his attention on her, on her reaction.

The brunette's sapphire eyes slowly opened as well, staring up at him dreamily as she whispered achingly, "Drew…"

That was all it took for Brendan to turn around and slam the door, loudly, behind him. He pressed himself back against the wood, his face burning with a blush and his steel eyes wide at what he had just witnessed. His childhood friend… No, the girl he had always loved, had just been kissed by another guy.

The name of his rival dropping off her lips in a literal whimper echoed over and over in his head, making him shake in a mixture of anger and confusion. Hearing rustling in the room behind him, he quickly turned and high-tailed it out of the building.

* * *

As soon as the door slammed, May snapped out of whatever trance Drew had lured her into, looking around the room for a second before realizing what had just happened. Again, her face burned, but, when she noticed that Drew was still extremely close to her, she pushed him away forcefully before getting up to her feet.

"I-I'm sorry; I...!" She tried to say, but she had no idea what to say, "I… I have to go find Brendan; we have to practice!"

Drew had fallen back onto the bed, but he sat back up easily enough. He smiled kindly at her, "I gotcha; go ahead."

May didn't know what she was doing when she bowed in thanks, turning around to leave, but was caught by her wrist. She turned her head to look at the tender expression on the fellow Coordinator's face.

"I'll be here whenever you want me to be."

Her heart skipped a beat at his words; she nodded as he slowly let go of her. She adjusted the bow behind her bandana before exiting the room.

Drew watched after her, his smile widening as he licked the side of his lip slightly, "Y'know… I think _I_ win, after all."

_TBC..._


End file.
